Today, AI isn’t futuristic. It’s a viable product that is changing how companies do business and compete. However, most companies that use AI tools will find that the tools do not give them anything of value on a wider scale. That is the reason why organizations that want to add meaningful value through AI need to build custom AI solutions that are designed and developed to meet their own specific performance and impact requirements.
The purpose of this article is to provide a deeper understanding of the definition of custom AI, the importance of designing AI systems with a focus on performance, and the value created by custom AI systems. This article will provide several case studies to illustrate how leading organizations create measurable impacts on business operations through custom AI systems and how they develop those systems.
What Are Custom AI Solutions?
The term “Custom AI” refers to artificial intelligence systems developed based upon the specific requirements of an organization, industry, or specific business use case. Rather than expecting any generic tool to work for them (i.e., to have to adapt their workflows to conform to a generic tool), organizations that want to develop a successful AI solution need to build an AI solution based upon their data, processes, and business objectives.
The analogy of entertaining a custom-made suit vs. the “off-the-rack” approach exemplifies this. While both suits are capable of fulfilling their intended purpose, the fitted version suited them best because it fit them perfectly.
Custom AI solutions can include:
- Proprietary machine learning models trained on the data the business collects.
- Intelligent automation designed specifically for their unique data and the workflows that stem from their specific business processes.
- Predictive analytics aligned with their organization’s formal business objectives.
- Natural language processing systems developed for their customers or industries.
The key point to remember here is: While AI will “work” in a technical sense, custom development adds the additional value of performance! Performance, not hype, is where real value lies.A high-quality demonstration of a system’s capabilities serves no purpose if it does not have the ability to scale, adapt and consistently deliver outcomes in a practical environment.
Performance Equals Accuracy
An Effective AI Solution utilizes high accuracy, reliability, and context awareness. An Effective AI Solution will be able to take data nuances into consideration while improving over time. An Effective AI Solution will be more effective at identifying customer preferences than a General Purpose AI Solution that does not take data nuances into consideration.
Speed and Efficiency equals Performance
An Effectively Designed AI Solution reduces bottlenecks. Automation of repetitive tasks, speed of decision-making and allowing team members to concentrate on higher value tasks are three benefits of Effectively Designed AI Solutions. And whether you are creating thousands of documents for processing or analysing customer feedback in real time, Performance-Based AI Solutions can save you both time as well as money.
Custom AI Solutions Affect More than Just Efficiency
The Effect of Tailored AI Solutions goes far beyond just having to work faster/easier. Custom AI is beneficial for an organisation to change the way it operates and competes with competitors.
Increase Smarter Decision-Making
AI requires data. However, there is a difference between types of data. Custom machine learning models trained with Relevant and/or High-Quality Data allows Business Leaders to make better-informed decisions based on Patterns / Predictions rather than Gut Feelings.
For example, a Retail Business can use Custom Forecasting Models to Predict “Future Customer Demand”, Share/Provide Less “Overstock” Items with Customers and Avoid Losing Sales Opportunities.
Create Better Customer Experiences
For Customers, Personalisation is Important. Custom AI Solutions that better understand Customer Behaviour, Customer Preference and/or Customer Context are able to provide a more “Intuitive” and “Human-Like” Customer Experience.An intelligent chatbot can be tailored to provide a personalized recommendation system that fosters user trust and loyalty. The AI can create an ongoing relationship between the user and the service provider by understanding their intent through engaging meaningful user interactions.
Competitive Differentiation
In a world today where everyone has access to the same tools, the competitive advantage is simply no longer existent. However, by utilizing Custom AI within the workflow of your organization, organizations can build a unique product in the way that Custom AI builds an intelligence layer directly into the process. Within the Custom AI space, we are seeing the most opportunities available to leverage AI technologies to Define Strategy rather than just support it.
Industries that Will Benefit from Custom AI Technology
Custom AI is not only limited to one industry, as Custom AI Technology is a cross-industry technology that can provide value to all industries.
Health Care
Custom AI solutions trained specifically on the health care sector will help healthcare professionals improve diagnosis and care delivery. Accuracy and compliance will be non-negotiable when developing custom AI solutions.
Financial Services
Financial Services organizations rely heavily on Custom AI solutions that are designed specifically for each individual organization’s patterns of business and regulatory environment. These organizations use Custom AI for various purposes, including fraud detection, risk assessment, and loan approval.
Manufacturing
Predictive Maintenance, Quality Control, and Supply Chain Optimizations are all examples of where Custom AI will provide valuable benefits to manufacturing organizations.
Marketing & Sales
Custom AI solutions can assist Marketers analyze customer journeys, predict conversion rates, and develop optimized marketing campaigns that other tools cannot match.
Characteristics of High-Impact Custom AI Projects
Not every Custom AI project will be successful; however, some of the most impactful Custom AI Projects will share common characteristics.
Clearly Define Your Business Needs
Custom AI Solution will never be created just for the sake of it. Instead, develop a clear, specific problem statement and establish your measurable goals (e.g., reduce customer turnover, increase operational efficiency, etc.) at the beginning of the project.The impact of AI depends upon the quality of the data being utilized to build the models. The availability of clean, relevant, and properly structured data will enable the development of a model capable of functioning effectively and dependably right away.
You need to build a scalable AI architecture to support the needs of an organization as it grows and changes. An effective AI architecture is designed to be scalable, flexible, and capable of integrating with existing systems and tools.
It is important that human oversight plays an active role in the development and implementation of AI solutions. Human expertise is an essential component of training the model, validating its performance, and ensuring its continual improvement.
Many of the obstacles associated with developing a custom AI system can be overcome, as long as there is a strategic approach to addressing them.
For example, breaking down data silos will provide the model with a complete view of all relevant data.
There is often resistance to change from stakeholders. Engaging with all stakeholders in the development process, and demonstrating early successes, will enable change to occur.
Ethical considerations must be factored into the design and development of the AI solution. This will require building in transparency and fairness to the process from the very beginning.
If the above items are considered and addressed prior to implementing an AI system, the investment in AI will provide long-term impact, as opposed to only providing short-term results.
A significant advantage of custom AI solutions is the potential for continuous learning, improving insights, and increasing performance over time as more data is fed through the system.
Unlike traditional software, the performance of a custom AI solution will improve as your business grows and develops. With time, the compounding effect of improved predictions, optimized automation, and confidence in business decisions will create value for the organization.
When developing custom AI solutions, businesses are not merely purchasing technology, they are investing in their organization’s foundation to build and support innovation.
Conclusion: Build AI That Works for You
Success with a custom-built AI solution is not dependent upon trending technology but instead depends upon using advanced technology to support complex business needs. By designing and developing solutions around measurable outcomes with long-term scalability in mind, your organization can realize the full potential of the AI technology.
A key takeaway: The most powerful AI solution will understand your business every bit as well as you do. If you are ready to move beyond the mass-produced, off-the-shelf AI solutions to solutions that generate measurable results for your business, it is time to begin developing AI with purpose.
Performance is a given when AI is built to fully support your needs.