As technology evolves faster than ever, it is important to keep up with the growing trends. Adapting and leveraging new technologies to your business processes is becoming more essential to remaining competitive and being innovative. In tune with this year’s BAASS Connect’s theme of “Future-Proofing”, we decided to compile a list of technological trends to get on board for the future:
Bots
Bots have a greater occupancy online than you may think. As of 2018, Facebook surpassed 300,000 bots on their website (source)! These are generally used by businesses, who utilize bots to chat with customers when they are reached out to. While generic bots follow a script, chatbots are able to interpret information using artificial intelligence.
Artificial Intelligence
AI has been a term that’s been floating around, due to its early presence in entertainment. Think back to the 1977 Star Wars movie, in the form of R2D2 and C-3PO, as well as in the 1984 Terminator movie. The works of artificial intelligence are still seen in movies as recent as the Marvel Avengers series, with AI used in F.R.I.D.A.Y, JARVIS, and Vision. Aside from entertainment, AI has been transforming the way businesses interact with other businesses or customers, albeit not as advanced as displayed in the entertainment industry. AI takes presence in the way we buy or sell things, as mentioned above, artificial intelligence ties in with bots, in the form of chatbots that are used to communicate with customers. In fact, 77% of technologies used by consumers now feature some form of AI (source). Many of you probably experience AI in your daily lives. Do you have an iPhone and use Siri? Do you have Amazon’s Alexa or a Google Home? Within the last few years, AI has been used to assist us in our daily tasks, and are used around our homes in the form of voice assistants. In businesses, there is a growing trend towards intertwining AI, ERP, CRM, and more, to streamline business processes and improve efficiency.
Automation
As technology has evolved over the last few years, more tasks are becoming automated. You’ve heard the growing concern of “robots will take over your job - everything will be automated”. Well, yes and no. Tasks are becoming more automated, with machines in the assembly line, and software in businesses. Things are requiring less manpower. Automation has made business processes more efficient, and there’s no doubt about it; however, things can go wrong. If a machine fails, what happens? There is a need to be precautious and not completely rely on automation. Consider if your payroll software malfunctions, there should be an individual who knows how to handle payroll processes manually. It’s important to be aware that although automation will take away redundantly tasked jobs, they create jobs elsewhere, and still require the aid of humans.
Web/Social Presence
As the presence of consumers on the internet grows, it is more important than ever to have an online presence. Due to the fast pace of changing trends due to the simplicity of sharing online, companies must evolve and keep up too. It is no longer sufficient only have a website; social media is a platform that companies use to interact more closely with customers, and stay updated. Companies must consider the aesthetics of their online presence as well - do your websites and branding look outdated or does it draw the eyes of consumers? According to VPNMentor, the fastest-growing fraction of the web is from mobile social media users. This emphasizes the importance of being on social media, as that is where a lot of consumers are; make note that it is not important to be on every platform, but rather where most of your customers are. Take a look at these statistics from KPMG:
Evidently, there is a heavy reliance on information that can be found on the internet when it comes to purchasing decisions. Having a good online presence is essential to maintaining relationships with your consumers, and building relationships with new ones. An organization’s online presence speaks a lot to their workplace culture and branding. Nowadays, there is a trend towards being casual with customers and humanizing organizations to be more relatable and easy to speak with.
In conclusion. these trends have been trickling into business processes and have many benefits, such as improving efficiencies. Nowadays, there are billions of dollars being put into researching artificial intelligence and its possible applications. The presence of technologies is growing and constantly pushing organizations to innovate. As we move towards the future, it’s important to be aware of these trends, and it’s even better if you and your organization can leverage it to your advantage.
