Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) has already started changing business interactions. As connectivity improves through 5G networks and faster mobile devices, expect even more changes in the coming months. 

AI is changing the way companies function. While some jobs will go away, they’ll be replaced with others more technologically advanced in nature. Companies have an opportunity to train their top workers and take the entire firm into the new technology age at the same time. 

What Are the Top Ways Machine Learning is Changing the World?

Machine learning and AI are impacting marketing and sales more than any other categories at this time. Around 61% of marketing professionals say their number one priority for data strategies is implementing AI. 

Marketing becomes more intuitive and gives a better return on investment (ROI) when machines are used to do the analysis and heavy lifting. Automation also saves employees time and ensures important dates and deadlines are never missed. 

Although marketing and sales are seeing big changes from machine learning and AI, many other industries see the impact as well. What are some other ways machine learning is having an impact on businesses everywhere? Here are several on an upward trajority. 

1. Streamline Marketing Campaigns

The things you do repeatedly create an opportunity for automation. You can use third-party software to schedule automatic posts from curated content and such. 

In a nutshell, you turn the computer into another marketing employee. Save the creative, unique tasks for your top performers and automate everything else. 

If you have things you do over and over, week after week, then these are items AI can likely handle for you with a bit of creative programming and third-party software. You may pay a little for the initial machine investment, but you’ll see an excellent ROI over time.

2. Tap Into Analytics

Machine learning gives you an opportunity to analyze anything from inventory management to sales figures. You can program AI predictive warnings to improve processes. The machine can let you know if a certain product takes off, inventory is low or if you’re hitting your key performance indicators. 

Machines can process information faster than humans can. You can pull on both data you have internally for your business as well as from public clouds and other statistics. You’ll get a fuller picture of how to grow your business most effectively. 

3. Use Natural Language Patterns

The e-commerce industry is paving the way for chatbots and utilizing machine learning to have more natural sounding conversations with customers. As the technology improves, people may not even be able to tell the difference between a live agent and a computer one. 

Ideally, the process would be so smooth that the client would never realize the difference. Any hand-offs would be seamless. Expect computer programmers to find more ways to make computers seem human-like in the coming years. 

4. Make Shopping Easy and Fun

Companies, such as Amazon are using a new approach to the way people shop. Instead of utilizing checkout lines and making customers wait for their purchases to be bagged, they’ve automated the entire process.

As people add items to the smart cart, it adds the item to the grand total. Their account is tied into an app on their phones, so they don’t have to do anything to check out other than walk out the door. 

Even if you don’t invest in a smart shopping cart, you might be able to tap into the power of apps to ease the shopping process for your customers. 

5. Hire Smarter

Machine learning is also impacting the way HR departments handle potential job candidates. Rather than a human sorting through hundreds of resumes, they use a computer to sort things into categories.

You can then pull up candidates with a particular skill, education level, number of years of experience or other factors.

Where Will Machine Learning Take Us in the Future?

The applications for machine learning and AI are endless. Today, advanced analytics are helpful to most types of businesses. Tomorrow, robotic employees with humanoid intelligence may greet customers at brick and mortar stores and fill the manual labor roles of today. Keep an eye on this industry to see the trends and what might help grow your business.