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AI Tools for Businesses: Selection and First Steps

Boost8 min read
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AI is a reality and it has long since stopped being something abstract for businesses. We increasingly have more AI tools for businesses around us and it is time to start making the most of them and turning them into a source of information and opportunities for your business.

More strategic decisions, more automated and simpler processes, a UX design connected to the real needs of users... The strategic potential of AI for businesses is there. And not just for large corporations with multimillion-dollar budgets. AI is an accessible option for SMEs that want to turn technology into their best ally.

In this article we explain the importance of AI for any digital business and help you understand the AI tool selection criteria for businesses that truly respond to your needs.

Why does your company need AI tools?

The potential of AI goes far beyond a chat you can ask questions or request an image to be generated in seconds. AI tools for businesses represent a genuine opportunity for your business, whatever type it may be.

With ever more options on the table, AI represents a total source of efficiency for your business. In addition to helping you identify possible improvements in your processes and operations, it is also a source of automation that helps you save time in your day-to-day life (and that of your team). And as you know: time is money.

In addition to saving you time (and consequently money), AI tools also help you optimise many other aspects of the business. When used well, it is a source of strategic information that allows you to make better business decisions supported by solid digital analytics. More agile, strategic decisions with real impact on your results.

Types of AI tools for businesses and how to leverage them

AI for automation of internal processes

One of the great opportunities that AI tools for businesses have created is, without doubt, the optimisation of internal processes and operations for any business. The way you work, organise your teams, make decisions and plan your daily routine has enormous automation potential that is reflected in your daily efficiency.

Repetitive and manual tasks, traditional data processing, team organisation... AI has meant a total revolution in everything related to the internal processes of your business, thanks to tools that summarise your meetings for those who could not attend, to AI that anticipates possible failures in your operations and alerts you in advance.

The internal operations of any business are, in many cases, responsible for its lack of resources or profitability. That is precisely why AI has become a total source of efficiency and optimisation that not only improves day-to-day life in your business, but is often reflected in the company's numbers.

AI for data analysis and Business Intelligence

In the full information age, any business that wants to be competitive and not fall behind must be capable of making decisions as swiftly and strategically as possible. And that absolutely requires solid digital analytics and Business Intelligence solutions that keep you always up to date with what is happening in your business.

Artificial intelligence software for businesses has proven to be a great ally for improving not only the way you collect and manage your data, but also how you convert it into decisions with real impact on your business.

Many tools allow you to identify errors, duplicates and even changes in data trends before they even occur. Thanks to this, your decisions will be more agile and based on the latest data. Everything you need for your business to be proactive rather than reactive.

AI to optimise CRO and user experience

AI tools also go beyond the internal processes and decisions of the business. There are increasingly more solutions that let you turn your data into improvements and opportunities for your CRO and UX. In other words: AI can help you identify the real needs of your users and propose tailored, personalised solutions for each case.

Thanks to specific tools for tracking and analysing your website or digital service, you can identify friction points, drop-off points and, ultimately, improvement points based on the actual behaviour of your users. This allows your CRO actions or your UX design changes to focus on areas that are truly important to your customers.

In addition to this, AI tools offer great potential for betting on the personalisation of your customers' experience. AI enables you to analyse more data that helps you understand and anticipate user priorities, guiding you towards a personalised design that truly connects with their current needs. This, of course, translates into greater satisfaction and conversion.

Comparison of the main AI tools for businesses

The opportunities of AI for digital businesses are as infinite as the number of available tools. Each company must make sure to find a solution tailored to its specific needs. That said, here is a comparative table of the main AI tools for businesses:

Tool | Ease of use | Integration | Scalability | Security | Comments Heap | High | Very good | High | Good | Automatically captures interactions and offers good integration, making adoption easier without relying too much on IT. Optimizely | Medium-high | High | High | High | Combines experimentation and personalisation at enterprise scale, with strong integration and security. Alteryx One | Medium | Good | High | High | Powerful for end-to-end analytics and automation, although it requires a more technical profile to get the most out of it. SAS Viya | Medium | Very good | Very high | Very high | Very robust and secure for large enterprises, but with a steeper learning curve. KNIME | Medium-low | Good | High | High | Flexible and open-source, ideal for visual data flows, although its deployment and security depend on the infrastructure.

Criteria for choosing the right tool

Scalability and adaptation to your sector

In general, AI has demonstrated that one of its great strengths is its adaptability. But not all tools can keep up with your business or adapt to the needs of your sector. You should always make sure you find a solution that, if your business grows or evolves, is capable of growing and evolving alongside it.

Today you can find tailored solutions and tools for different sectors or services. But if that solution is not enough for your business, you can also explore tools that offer services designed from the ground up for each company.

Cost and expected return

Measuring the impact of AI is one of the great challenges. AI tools for businesses offer solutions that, at first glance, seem difficult to quantify and convert into figures. To find the right key for your business, the first thing you need to be clear on is what you want to improve through AI. Your processes? Your efficiency? Your financial results?

The various solutions available will offer you ways to measure the impact on your business that adapt to your own criteria. But for that, you first need to establish what the measure of success is in your own company.

Ease of integration with existing systems

AI should make your life easier, not more complicated. When choosing the right tool, you should always take into account its integration capacity with your entire current setup. It is normal that you will need to make some minor changes for AI to integrate correctly, but you should not have to turn your business upside down.

Explore the different integration levels of AI with the tools and systems you currently use, as well as potential tools you may use in the future. Always choose the most realistic option for your business: one that helps you, not one that gets in your way.

Level of support and data security

Integrating AI into your business means giving it access to your information, your processes and all the data at your disposal. For that reason, security is more important than ever. Not all tools adhere to the same criteria and not all fully comply with current regulations.

In general, you should always follow those tools that comply with current standards and regulations. But in addition to that, it is advisable to look for solutions with real support. That is: with a team that resolves your doubts, helps you solve potential problems, just as we do from our marketing and technology consultancy.

How to get real value from AI in your company

The key to choosing the right AI tool for businesses lies in having a strategic approach. In knowing what is expected of AI, what the key criteria are and having the means to measure its impact on the business. For that, it is important to start slowly and progressively identify which tools are genuinely generating opportunities and benefits for the company.

At Boost we accompany digital businesses in their transformation towards a model that integrates AI into their processes and decision-making. We believe that good use of AI requires a good selection of tools and a correct implementation that truly fits the business model. Shall we help you find the right solution?

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AI Tools for Businesses: Selection and First Steps | Boost