AI Insights Will Empower Your Brand to Develop Winning Strategies

Every company wants a competitive edge and greater efficiency, but too many of the tools available today are not delivering results. Evidence-based forecasting is needed to identify the right data and cut through the noise; relying on gut feelings is risky. Nothing can compete with data-driven insights informed by human expertise. And for businesses coping with continuing disruption, artificial intelligence (AI) offers unparalleled opportunities to predict customer demand and anticipate emerging market trends.

“AI gives us better predictions at speed in a highly unpredictable environment,” says Kriti Sharma, VP of Product at global data and analytics firm GfK. “It helps us navigate uncertainty going forward, and that’s an interesting mindset change for many businesses.”

AI-enhanced decision-making, with models enriched by core company values and access to the most relevant data, can build a foundation for future success. Without predictive insights, there’s a real risk of missing out on making the best possible business decisions.

Building trust in AI decision-making

“If we want to fundamentally transform how businesses make decisions, we need to trust AI,” Sharma explains.

But placing trust in AI is a leap of faith for many organizations, requiring courage at board level and a culture change throughout the business. It takes careful planning to strike the right balance between AI insights and human expertise.

“It’s not as simple as hiring data scientists to build a model for success. AI decision-making must be grounded in company values,” says Sharma. “We build technology that lives and breathes the values of the business or service it provides.”

Where possible, AI systems should be designed around people who possess industry knowledge and expertise. When organizations are inclusive, the predictive insights they can unlock can be truly transformative.

Realizing the promise of AI insights

AI insights reveal more of the road ahead, so companies can see trends as they emerge and pivot to take advantage. With an accurate picture of true demand and the competition, businesses can hone products and services to better deliver what customers desire. Deep domain knowledge combined with AI that can leverage relevant data patterns is a powerful business proposition.

“Companies want to know what drives consumers to do certain things,” explains Sharma. “Our clients are making the most important decisions they have to make where they have the least confidence today, based on our analytics and our predictions around consumer behaviors and trends. We are revealing what motivates people to purchase, how these patterns are changing and how they differ across different parts of the world.”

GfK’s AI technology insights platform, gfknewron, reaches beyond internal expertise to dive deep into purchasing data and market trends to answer important questions about customers. It reveals their motivations, innovations that genuinely matter to them, what triggers people to buy and how purchases improve their quality of life.

Human-centric AI insights enable companies to drill down to a granular level with specific questions about purchasing decisions. If there’s only one brand of an item left on the shelf, for example, will people buy it now or wait for their favorite brand to come back into stock? Will buyers delay a purchase to get a product in their favorite color?

With gfknewron, businesses gain access to a continuous stream of rich market intelligence and relevant insights that cut through data noise to help businesses mold sales strategy, meet demand and identify innovations worth pursuing.

The future of AI in business

AI insights uncover new correlations and hidden connections. Predictive insights might reveal that a customer who can’t go on vacation to Greece this year will choose to buy a smart vacuum cleaner instead, for example. Such deep insights help companies look beyond how their product compares with another to show the complete story of a customer’s journey, to find the right blend of innovative features, efficiency and price that defines their ideal product and triggers that purchase.

“We are starting to predict human behavior and human habits,” explains Sharma. “And combining that with how the markets function, how supply chains function and how price and promotions factor into consumer decisions enables us to help clients develop winning strategies.”

As partnerships between people and AI evolve, they will push beyond the identification of trends and motivations to anticipate our needs. Forward-thinking companies will harness AI to drive the trends curve, rather than react to it.

Watch the full interview to deep-dive into the impact of AI on business results.

^{This article originally appeared on Business Reporter. Image credit: iStock 207062970}