Hollywood has made a mint capitalizing on all the different ways it theorizes that artificial intelligence (AI) will affect our future world. From household helpmates to law enforcement, most stories include AI going sideways and waging a war against humanity.

So, it’s understandable why there may be some trepidation about bringing AI into your business. The good news is that the AI of real life is significantly more controllable, and positioned not to take the world from humans, but to enable them to better do what the human mind is designed to do—reason, theory, question, analyze—by performing the more mundane and repetitive tasks, such as data gathering and auditing, with advanced speed and precision.

Many companies have begun slowly adopting AI, and the recent U.S. tax reform legislation may make AI even easier to adopt as businesses find themselves with more money. AI is poised to drive $15.7 trillion in economic gains by 2030; adopting AI now could be the best down payment on that future that your company could make today.

AI’s Job Description

If you’re a manufacturer and/or distributor, you may already be using some forms of AI in the assembly, picking, and packing of your products. But, more than robotics, AI can dig into the data that’s behind your products and shipments to discover other information that can benefit your company.

• AI is a Great Historian: Computers have great capacity to sift through massive amounts of data that would take humans hundreds of hours to compile. Not only that, AI programs have a significantly smaller—if potentially nonexistent—margin of error. New tax laws require U.S. companies that do business globally to pay a toll charge on their foreign earnings, which has the added requirement of sifting through 20 years of global bookkeeping. This is something you can task to your AI while leaving space for your employees to analyze the results.
• AI Can Spot Trends and Make Forecasts: You’re probably already tracking and analyzing your product sales for future predictions … by hand. How much nimbler could your business be if you used AI to track trends over the years and forecast not only which products move when, but what your growth expectation should be, how much raw material you’ll need to budget for to meet those new demands, and where to best stock these items across the country? AI can be set up to identify trends and patterns on the spot, giving you immediate insight into your market for future planning purposes.
• AI Can Increase Efficiency: Companies have even more access to data now than ever before, but the problem with all that big data has been a lack of ability or capability to process it and glean insight. As you continually ask how to make processes more efficient and improve business practices, AI can help by cleaning up data, pulling only relevant information from your systems.
• AI Will Not Overthrow Human Employees: While Hollywood’s predictions may still make you tremble a bit, AI isn’t built to take over the world, or even steal jobs from humans. In fact, by 2020, experts predict only 1 percent of jobs will be at high risk of losing to automation. As AI becomes a more permanent part of your team, the demand for technicians and programmers to develop and maintain AI will rise. Humans will continue to work. With AI, we’ll simply be able to work more efficiently.

Hello, My Name is SYSPRO

All things considered, now is the perfect time to add an AI “colleague” to your team. There’s capital for it and getting in on the ground floor can give you an added boost in AI adoption. Technologies such as SYSPRO provide excellent first adoption with enterprise resource planning (ERP) and business intelligence. Easily monitor and review sales and production data, with the ability to plan based on what your SYSPRO technology reveals. With SYSPRO, enjoy optimal financial management and faster ROI for a distinct competitive advantage. This is a new colleague you’ll definitely want to welcome.

PositiveVision: Your AI Source

PositiveVision has been helping companies find the best intelligence for their business for more than 15 years. Whether you’re venturing in for the first time, or looking to upgrade your current technology, PositiveVision can make sure you get exactly what you’re looking for. Contact us today and let us find you the best new technology colleague to round out your team.