Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1194267
19.12.19 13 OPINION Alexiei Dingli Prof Alexiei Dingli is a Professor of AI at the University of Malta and has been conducting research and working in the field of AI for more than two decades, assisting different companies to implement AI solutions. He forms part of the Malta.AI task-force, set up by the Maltese government, aimed at making Malta one of the top AI countries in the world Boosting your small business in 2020 2 019 was, without doubt, the year of Artificial Intelligence (AI). We have heard a lot about it, but many are unsure whether this is just the latest fad or if its here to stay. If we take a little peep at what is hap- pening in the world around us, the AI industry will grow to a $190 billion in- dustry worldwide by 2025. 23% of busi- ness are already using AI in some form or another, and this will go up to 75% by 2021. In fact, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC), 40% of digital transformations today make use AI ser- vices. One might argue that this holds for large corporations but does not apply for small businesses. is assumption cannot be further from the truth. In this article, we will have a look at how AI can help small businesses, in particular; restaurants, retailers, the service industry and those working in hospitality. Let us have a look at restaurants. e company accounts already hold a re- cord of most of the data related to the purchase of raw materials. e sales records can be accessed through the point-of-sale system. Furthermore, most restaurants today have a web presence either through their website or through a facebook page. If these three pieces of information are combined and sprinkled with some AI, the restauranteur can get some incred- ible insight about his future operations. e system can easily calculate footfall (even taking into consideration season- ality, feasts, etc.), and it will be able to profile clients. It essentially means that the AI can predict; when someone will book a ta- ble, for how many people and also what they will likely order. e effect of this is that the restauranteur can adopt a just- in-time ordering system, thus reducing food waste and eventually reducing his costs by around 12%. e AI can even analyse the reviews on social media and suggest possible improvements to the restaurant. When it comes to retail, most of the shops rely on impulse buying. To satis- fy customers, retailers need to pile up stock based upon customer preferenc- es. However, too much stock might be problematic since it might lead to dead stock. Once again, given that most of the data is available, AI can be used to help retailers improve their sales. A chat- bot can be used to answer user queries through the Facebook page and also sell specific items 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Online portals, combined with targeted campaigns, can be used to sell deadstock online. Profiling clients can help to predict future purchases. It then reduces stock orders; thus stor- ing less stock but obtaining more nota- ble sales. Such systems are also capable of predicting customer churn and sig- nificantly improve the retention of ex- istent customers. Within the service industry, time is of the essence. Because of this, simple au- tomation tasks can go a long way. e most basic one is scheduling appoint- ments. Imagine a Barbershop which employs four barbers. Each barber can service around 375 clients per month (assuming 30 minutes per client and a six-day working week). So in total, this shop of four barbers has 1,500 appointments per month. If each of those appointments is made via a phone call and every call lasts for 1 minute, this means that one of the bar- bers is spending three full working days per month scheduling appointments rather than cutting hair. In this case, a simple online system can automate the whole process! e hospitality industry too can bene- fit from AI, irrespective of whether one owns a small Airbnb or a large hotel. AI systems can be used to analyse listings, perform sentiment analysis on the re- view and get recommendations on how the place can be improved. Automatic translators make commu- nication with foreigners easier since emails can be translated to the most spoken languages on our planet. Ana- lytics can help to project future trends and predict occupancy. Profiling of clients will help to pro- vide customers with a personalised and unique experience. Finally, AI can be used to ease the recruitment of person- nel and provide adequate training. As can be seen from the various ex- amples mentioned above, irrespective of the size of the business, AI is used in several usecases. 2020 will be the year where we will experience wider AI adoption throughout the different eco- nomic sectors since AI provides a com- petitive advantage to any organisation that uses it. Because of this, why not make a new year resolution and start looking at the possibilities brought forth by AI.