How Are Big Brands Using Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial intelligence is one of the most important trends on the market today. The largest companies invest billions of dollars in solutions based on it.

We live in golden times for artificial intelligence. AI has changed the world in many ways and is present in many aspects of our daily lives - even if we do not realize it. Artificial intelligence has significantly affected many activities on the web: starting from news and streaming services through eCommerce websites to the automotive industry. In this article, we will try to take a close look at the biggest and most popular brands and check how they use AI-based solutions in their operations.

The importance of artificial intelligence in the economy

For many years Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been continuously supporting digital transformation. Its growing popularity and social acceptance have changed the way companies approach many daily tasks and what they take into account when building strategies for the years to come.

According to a MarketsAndMarkets study , the value of AI in the market will continue to rise and will most likely amount to $ 190 billion by the year 2025. Therefore, we must prepare for the growing importance of artificial intelligence in other sectors of the economy.

Research already shows that more and more companies are aware of the opportunities offered by this technology and that they are ready to implement it in their strategic plans.

Here are some statistics on companies' awareness of the role of artificial intelligence and its impact in the near future:

Companies estimate that as much as 85% of interactions with customers in the future will be handled without human intervention.
80% of companies state that the use of AI-based solutions has increased their productivity.
61% of marketers believe AI is the most important aspect of their data strategy.

It is predicted that in the next few years, work on the development of artificial intelligence will accelerate even further, and giants such as Google and Microsoft have already been investing capital in new initiatives related to AI.

Information services

Artificial intelligence is more and more commonly used in the news media - from accelerating the process of gathering information for an article to data collection and analysis.

In the year 2015, The New York Times launched an experimental AI-based project called Editor. The aim of the project was to accelerate, streamline and automate the work of journalists. The authors of the texts were asked to use special tags in their texts, which the system could later use to improve its neural network.

Over time, the system has learned to recognize the most important parts of the article and the characteristic stylistic devices. Thanks to this, the algorithm could search the Internet in real-time, collecting reliable information about a given topic. By using the capabilities of this system, the journalist could significantly speed up the information verification process, which led to the reduction of the time needed to create an article and prevented the spread of fake news.

artificial intelligence supports the fight against fake news

NYT also uses artificial intelligence-based solutions to moderate comments posted by users on the website and on social media platforms. A tool called Perspective, developed by Jigsaw (part of Google Alphabet's parent company) organizes comments so you can quickly check which comments might be 'toxic' to the portal and which ones have a substantive value. This solution improves the quality of the discussion and fights against the problem of hate speech.

eCommerce

We wrote earlier about the opportunities for the eCommerce market created by artificial intelligence on our blog here. ECommerce is an industry that uses AI and ML (Machine Learning) in a very broad and common sense.

Given the very rapid growth of eCommerce, especially during the lockdown period in the year 2020, the eCommerce market has become more saturated and competitive. Companies are trying to use a variety of tools, strategies, and manners to optimize and automate their business as well as increase revenue and customer engagement.

Alibaba, one of the largest eCommerce websites on the market, has been investing heavily in solutions based on artificial intelligence in recent years. The website has invested in seven research laboratories, among others, which will focus on artificial intelligence, machine learning, network security, and other technologies that could improve online sales.

system rekomendacji produktowych w eCommerce

Alibaba already has some of the most modern systems based on artificial intelligence implemented to support sales. They include the so-called Tmall Smart Selection - an algorithm that uses machine learning to display personalized product recommendations to customers. Its biggest advantage is the use of various data sources in order to generate a comprehensive list of recommended products and informing sellers about increased interest in a given offer so that they can prepare inventory for increased demand.

Alibaba also uses Dian Xiaomi - a modern chatbot, which - according to its creators - is able to understand over 90% of customer inquiries and handles over 3.5 million user inquiries daily. All these technological improvements during Singles Day in the year 2017 (Chinese competition for Valentine's Day) helped increase sales by approximately $ 7.2 billion as compared to the previous year.

Entertainment portals

In this post we wrote about how services such as TikTok or Spotify implement solutions based on artificial intelligence in order to offer their users effective recommendations. YouTube can be proud of one of the most extensive recommendation systems among entertainment websites.

It has been estimated that YouTube's algorithm helps users decide what to watch 70% of the time. Additionally, according to the Pew Research Center, 81% of American YouTube users admit that they regularly watch videos recommended by the algorithm.

Over the years, the platform has significantly developed its recommendation system based on artificial intelligence. At the beginning of its operation, it was based exclusively on the number of video views. Since 2012, YouTube has started generating recommendations based on watch time. By prioritizing videos that caught the most attention of users during the duration of the footage, the platform was able to provide them with recommendations that were more likely to attract attention. Often, however, they were not accurately tailored to the personal interests of each viewer.

This problem was solved when in 2016 the platform introduced a new video recommendation system based on artificial intelligence. It has two main tasks: find the right movie for every viewer and get users to continue watching. The algorithm observes the behavior of each user, their preferences, and statistics of all videos on the platform. Considering the available data, its effectiveness is impressive.

Automotive industry

The automotive world has become an important part of the discussion about artificial intelligence in practice. This is mainly due to brands such as Tesla that boldly decide to introduce autonomous solutions in their cars. Elon Musk's company is recognized as a pioneer in autonomous car technology, and its proprietary autopilot is the most advanced system of its kind on the market.

Tesla is currently conducting a closed beta of the fully autonomous driving system. However, later this year, it plans to include this functionality in one of the upcoming updates. Many people may have concerns about the security of such systems. The number of unpredictable variables that artificial intelligence needs to deal with while driving is astronomically greater than during, for instance, data analysis for the sake of increasing sales in online stores.

However, statistics show that these fears are completely unfounded. In the fourth quarter of the year 2020, Tesla recorded just one accident for every 5.5 million kilometers driven in an autopilot mode. For comparison, the latest NHTSA data shows that in the United States, a car accident occurs approximately every 778,000 kilometers.

car automation with artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence is able to anticipate dangerous situations on the road and react to threats faster than humans. Other automotive companies such as Mercedes and the Volkswagen Group are also working on similar AI solutions.

Marketing

Artificial intelligence has also started to play an increasingly important role in the area of marketing. AI enables brands and online stores to achieve one very important goal that previously seemed unattainable - establishing contact with each customer in a personalized way.

Today, consumers value personalization more than ever. In fact, 91% of customers are more likely to shop from brands that send them properly selected and tailored offers and recommendations. We wrote more about personalization in eCommerce in this post.

Summary

Artificial intelligence is currently considered to be one of the most important factors influencing the development of the largest enterprises in the global market. Such industries as marketing, eCommerce, streaming platforms, or automotive are just one of many that are more and more willing to develop this intelligent way of business automation. Artificial intelligence is also considered one of the key elements of digital transformation and experts estimate that its role in our everyday life will be more and more prominent every year.

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