Neural Networks in Business: Advantages and Perspectives

Have you heard something about artificial intelligence? I guess yes. It is rather difficult to be unaware of one of the most popular tech trends in the world for today. Many outstanding companies use AI in their software and it really enhances software capabilities, making it more advanced and smarter.

But software relates to the IT field. Can any other field gain advantages from artificial intelligence? I think it is possible to fulfill it successfully. See how neural networks can be applied in various fields of activity.

Neural network: definition and the way it worksLet's talk a bit about the neural network and its capabilities. This technology is also dubbed as an artificial neural network. Why? Because the neural network is functioning similarly to neurons in our brain. Neurons make it possible for us to think and make decisions, express creativity and so on.

At the moment, machines cannot compete with human brains. They can help you find something or give you a piece of advice, but they cannot replace a human assistant. Neural networks were developed to resolve this issue and create a revolution in this field. Because artificial neurons are structured in the form that human neurons are, they can constantly teach themselves by receiving new information, analyzing it and improving the result step by step.

Of course, the more information the network gets, the more complicated it is to analyze, so the number of neurons in the network can exceed a few thousand, and the network's complicated structure is the reason for longer processing times.

But, if they get something for the first time, they commit it to memory and the machines gradually become smarter and smarter. Now it is time to look into how neural networks can be applied in any other kind of activity.

Marketing The marketing and retail field may seem rather far from artificial intelligence. But, this technology occupies the marketing niche as well. Neural networks can be used in marketing to arrange a productive target marketing campaign. The goal of target marketing is to divide segments of the market, allowing the vendor to select a suitable approach to each segment. That is, target marketing allows you to find customers exactly right for a product or service. Are they interested in software development? Target marketing makes it possible to find customers to offer a product to.

The more customers a targeted marketing effort attracts, the more successful the company-vendor becomes. Artificial intelligence can help you divide the market into segments by economic status, purchasing patterns, and so on. As noted above, the neural network needs to be taught. So, it is necessary to help the network to differentiate one segment from another or implement some other task. Just assign the tasks you need, and then train, train, and train again!

As a result, you will save yourself time and funds, since AI will help you build your business.

Retail Neural networks can implement a few tasks simultaneously, so its use in retail can be invaluable. In addition, artificial intelligence is capable of working with a big scope of data and figures, so forecasts made by neural networks can be much more accurately than those that were formed by conventional statistics or human experts.

The second option for using neural networks in retail is the assessment of the whole range of products that are available. For example, networks can give you a picture of which products were bought today, how many times, and what combination of products was bought more often.

If you know what your customers prefer to buy (or ignore), you will do your best to provide them with exactly what they want. For example, you can locate one type of products near another on your website, if they are usually purchased together. The neural network will help you to send timely reminders to people: For example, a customer bought a laptop, and, according to basic requirements, it is necessary to clean the laptop once a year. Through AI, you can remind your customer to bring his or her laptop in for a cleaning.

Finance The forecasting capability opens new horizons for using neural networks in finance. When a lot of information goes through a network, it is capable of making predictions then. As it is constantly learning, its predictions will be more accurate time after time upon completion of each financial analysis.

Exchange and stock rates also can be predicted accurately because of AI, but the banking sector can also make use of neural networks. For example, banks can give loans to people according to statistical data about an individual that was collected by neural networks.

Insurance Today, insurance companies use a lot of technologies to track an insured property so they are able to immediately detect if something has occurred to it. A neural network application, can help divide customers into groups to form pricing for each customer individually.

Also, fraud detection is one of the most popular neural network applications in the insurance field. AI may be able to distinguish fraudulent schemes and light-fingered customers. Finally, considering a high level of competition in the insurance field, neural networks can help companies analyze why an individual rejected their service. In turn, AI will help companies to arrange the right program to increase customers' loyalty.

TelecommunicationsThe particularity of neural network functioning in telecommunication is not so different from the insurance field. For instance, AI tech can be used to analyze the behavior of the customer to understand why they left the company and started using a competitor's services.

In addition, neural networks help service providers understand whether a promotional campaign is successful. Routing analysis and network traffic are also areas that can be modified and improved thanks to artificial neural networks.

Operations managementToday, employees in factories can use enterprise apps that simplify their life and make the job more efficient. At the same time, machinery is also equipped with AI. Today some rolling mills and other lines of assembly can use neural networks that optimize the functioning of equipment and extends its lifespan.

Besides that, manufacturers tend to use cameras with neural networks algorithms that help monitor the manufacturing process, assist in optimization, detection of defective products and so on.

As you see, the capabilities of artificial neural networks seem unlimited, and they really are. If you want to use it in your own business, you should talk to software developers to study the feasibility. Who knows what will happen tomorrow? Maybe, AI will be everywhere.

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Nataliia Kharchenko is a technical writer at Cleveroad, a web and app development company in Ukraine that implements projects of any complexity.