According to the United Nations, artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to contribute up to $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030, of which $1.2 trillion could be generated by Africa.
AI has the potential to unlock significant growth and development in key industries across the continent, fundamentally changing the way businesses operate, driving innovation, improving efficiency and transforming people's lives.
Companies of all sizes that have already invested in AI are reaping the benefits, from increased business productivity and agility to improved customer experiences and decision-making, with McKinsey noting that AI Leaders are outperforming their industry peers by 3.4x.
But for businesses to take full advantage of the opportunities presented by AI, it's also important to deploy it where it will have the greatest impact. Here are some examples of where businesses can use AI to drive revenue.
1. Finance and Billing
One of the areas where technology can most help a company improve its bottom line is finance and billing: having an accurate and up-to-date view of the financial picture can help an organization know when to invest in growth, for example.
If your business wants a steady stream of revenue, it needs to send invoices, delivery notes, and payment reminders on time.
This is where AI can help in a variety of ways: In the case of expense invoices, for example, tools with built-in image recognition can enable businesses to scan the invoice into the system and auto-generate the expense amount, location, date, time, and category, saving a lot of time and effort.
On the other hand, when it comes to billing, automating a large part of it can significantly speed up the onboarding process for new clients.
AI-powered tools can also extract relevant information from invoices, such as customer details and product descriptions, and automatically input them into the billing system for further efficiency.
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2. Prioritize your leads
Another key area is new business leads. More specifically, AI can help your sales team evaluate the quality of the leads they generate. After all, 2-3 good leads are more beneficial than 10 weak ones.
Using a points-based system, AI can help score leads according to their quality, allowing your sales team to better evaluate which leads are worth pursuing, ultimately helping them close more sales on a more meaningful level.
3. Improved customer experience
Customer Experience (CX) has long been a key differentiator for businesses, not just product or price: when customers have a good experience, they are more likely to spend more, remain loyal, and recommend a business to friends and family.
Therefore, businesses need to work harder than ever to make their customer experience stand out. Here again, technology can help.
Take sentiment analysis, for example: it helps identify your most dissatisfied customers, allowing your customer success team to focus on their needs and improve their business experience.
4. More targeted marketing
The most effective marketing today is highly personalized and targeted, and AI makes it much easier to achieve the level of targeted personalization required for marketing success today.
When integrated with a company's data, marketing tools can create and improve personalized marketing content based on each customer's CRM data.
5. Increased employee productivity
There's a strong correlation between employee productivity and your bottom line. Employee productivity is driven by a positive employee experience.
A more productive workforce translates into higher revenue and profit margins. AI can improve both productivity and the overall employee experience by automating repetitive tasks, allowing employees to focus on meaningful work that drives revenue.
Adopt AI but use the right provider
While this technology can add immense value in terms of driving revenue within an organization, it is also important for companies to understand what they are getting into when adopting AI.
This means conducting comprehensive background research and choosing tools that meet your needs and adhere to privacy best practices.
