The recent anti-Covid directives have reiterated a truth that we already know by heart: businesses that want to stay afloat must become increasingly digital, and ever better.

Among the many dematerializations and optimizations of services that we see on the market, artificial intelligence for companies still retains a certain science fiction charm. Perhaps for this reason many entrepreneurs look at it with suspicion, ultimately thinking that "we already have a website, a latest-generation management system... What use is a technology as advanced as AI?".

In fact, examples of artificial intelligence in companies are already widespread, and are starting to achieve initial success. For this reason, we have collected 3 practical examples already in use in several Italian companies, which do not require enormous expenses or overly advanced software.

So forget about movie scenarios, because these bots will not take over your office, your company server, or your car's control unit.

Or at least, not yet.

1) The chatbot for ecommerce

This is one of the most common uses, very widespread in e-commerce, but not only. The chatbot is nothing more than a virtual assistant that contacts the potential customer who has just entered the site. Like a clerk at the entrance of a store, smiling, kind and never intrusive, the chatbot asks you if it can help you.

Or, the assistant appears only when the customer asks for help. The time saving, compared to human assistance, is obviously significant.

2) Order and inventory management

For warehouses and crafts in general, artificial intelligence will be a real revolution. Bots can be trained to calculate the reorder point, the stock quantities, the optimal warehouse locations. Unsold stock can be reduced by predicting how many purchases will be made in the future.

Artificial intelligence is often already integrated with the various management systems already in use by various companies. But even for those who do not use management systems, such as a bakery or a pastry shop, AI could make the difference: this is what the president of AIxIA (Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence) said in a recent interview. 

3) Forecasts and reports

Reporting is essential to record the good performance of a company and make predictions about the future. Many companies already use AI to have precise indications on their state of health, analyzing the variability of orders, the items that most impact the balance sheet, the investments that have had the greatest return, and many other factors.

The benefits of artificial intelligence for companies

The real novelty of Artificial Intelligence is its incredible versatility, because it is based on continuous learning, the machine learning algorithm .

This principle, which is actually very simple, allows us to delegate boring and repetitive tasks that are traditionally performed by humans to a machine.