AI and Automation: Understanding the Impact on Future Entrepreneurs

The rapid uptake of tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini over the past few years has thrust AI into mainstream conversation and made entrepreneurs across various niches reassess their relationship with their tech stacks.

With the UK AI market expected to exceed 4.5 billion pounds by the end of the year, it’s crucial for entrepreneurs to keep informed on the development of this sector and take advantage of its upward momentum.

In this guide, we’ll take a closer look at how AI is changing business, the key AI and automation trends shaping the future for entrepreneurs, and some practical applications you can use to take advantage of this exciting technology.

AI-Driven Decision Making

For many entrepreneurs, one of the most obvious benefits of artificial intelligence is its ability to recognise patterns in large data sets and help inform more efficient decision-making while avoiding analysis paralysis.

AI tools’ predictive abilities are well-suited to helping entrepreneurs navigate many of the challenges that come with executing a long-term business strategy, for example mitigating financial risks, assessing the competitive standards in their niche, and forecasting product and service demands in different audience segments.

This can be especially useful for people who are starting a business for the first time, as AI for entrepreneurs can be applied for tasks like social media sentiment analysis and concept testing, empowering them to make smarter decisions in the all-important first year, and use limited resources as effectively as possible.

Super-Personalised Marketing and Customer Experience

In today’s marketing landscape, personalisation is a major predictor of how well a brand is able to deliver successful marketing campaigns and develop lasting relationships with its target audience. 

A 2021 study by McKinsey found that 71% of consumers expect personalisation when interacting with a brand, and an even higher proportion feel frustrated when personalisation is lacking.

Many integrated social media and email marketing tools already use AI recommendation engines to analyse the behavioural patterns in a given audience, and make recommendations to help users execute marketing decisions that are more likely to result in click-through and conversion.

With the use of AI, marketers can analyse huge volumes of customer data and predict the preferences and behaviours of specific customer segments, empowering them to make more informed decisions in their marketing content and targeting. When used correctly, this AI-powered personalisation can lead to higher customer satisfaction, brand loyalty, and margins.

Automated Routine Processes

Perhaps the most accessible application of AI automation technology is its ability to automate routine, manual tasks, freeing up time for entrepreneurs and workers to focus on more challenging projects.

With AI-driven automation, entrepreneurs can create more efficient workflows, increase productivity, and widen the bandwidth for projects that will help accelerate business development.

There are countless areas where entrepreneurs can embrace AI as a way to automate routine processes, but some of the most common examples include:

• Scheduling and calendar management.
• Inventory management, supply chains, and logistic optimisation.
• Recruitment and employee onboarding.
• Bookkeeping, invoice generation, and expense management.
• Customer service through chatbots.
• Document organisation.

With more possibilities being developed all the time, business process automation is one area of AI that all entrepreneurs should investigate when looking to increase efficiencies in their basic processes.

Product Development and Innovation

Some of the most visible and newsworthy capabilities of AI are helping businesses to develop innovative new products and redefine standards in their industry niches.

The development of AI-powered autonomous vehicles is poised to have huge implications in the world of warehousing and logistics, while AI facial recognition is finding an increasing number of uses in security, personalised marketing campaigns, and workforce management.

Though these more real-world applications of AI may not be relevant to your industry yet, the use of machine learning in the product development process itself could help to make these projects more efficient and help inform key decisions that will align new products to the conditions of the market.

Customer analysis and predictive modelling can help you analyse large datasets to predict customer behaviours and preferences, and create products that better serve the needs of your audience. AI algorithms can also contribute to design parameters optimization and balance variables such as cost, performance, and manufacturing.

Going beyond the product design phase, machine learning can also be used to detect manufacturing defects and maximise the quality of your finished products. The production data gathered from these processes can also be implemented to identify potential sources of inefficiency and highlight areas for improvement, leading to higher-quality products and minimised waste.

AI-Augmented Workplaces

The development of AI capabilities is also expected to have a major impact on employees’ relationships with their organisations and the way we think about the workplace.

AI-centric software has a variety of potential applications for employee support and improving engagement with their roles. 

Natural language processing, for example, can be used to analyse the sentiment of employee conversations in email chains and communication apps, offering a more efficient and detailed alternative to traditional methods like employee feedback surveys. Entrepreneurs can also use predictive analysis to anticipate emerging skill gaps and schedule training courses.

AI tools can also be deployed for tighter cyber security, and help analyse employee activity to ensure compliance with GDPR and other privacy regulations. This is expected to help employees approach their work with confidence, and take some of the burden off management when it comes to compliance.

By deploying AI to improve the employee experience, entrepreneurs will be able to benefit from a more engaged workforce and the increased efficiencies that come with it.

Increased Regulation

Although the conversation around AI and entrepreneurship usually centres on the revolutionary efficiencies it can offer, it’s also important to consider increased AI regulation on the near horizon.

Many countries, including China, Canada, and the UAE, have enacted legislation dealing specifically with AI due to concerns around transparency, business leaders’ accountability, and other ethical concerns.

Some common traits of international AI regulation include:

• Prohibiting biometric data harvesting and emotional recognition through facial analysis AI.
• Transparency mandates for businesses that are developing new AI software.
• Curbing algorithms that discriminate against humans in any way.
• Mandates that ensure AI users are aware of the kind of data their software is harvesting and how it’s being used.

As AI technology has been adopted and rolled out so rapidly, governments are having to tackle the new challenge of catching up with evolving AI capabilities. As legislation develops in the near future, it’s crucial for entrepreneurs to keep their finger on the pulse, and avoid implementing AI in a way that could run afoul of new regulations.

The Future of AI for Entrepreneurs

The relationship between AI and entrepreneurship is still in its early days, but studying its current applications and likely developments in the future will go a long way in making sure your business is positioned to make the most of AI’s potential benefits.

We hope this round-up has helped you understand the future trajectory of AI technologies, and sparked some inspiration as you plan how your business will embrace artificial intelligence in the future.

By Gemma Williams, HR Consultant.