What to Consider When Integrating AI into Your Business

AI has been a buzzword in tech for decades, used to describe any number of ‘smart’ tech and digital products or applications in a bid to win out in a saturated market. This changed in recent months, though, with the development of the closest systems we have seen to true AI. This is an epochal moment in tech, and one which could change the way businesses operate indelibly. But how might businesses seek to avail of these potential future benefits?

Towards an AI Future

The AI revolution is already well and truly underway, and has been for over a year. Since OpenAI’s Large Language Model (LLM) ChatGPT was made available to the public in 2022, the tech sector has exploded with AI innovation; competitor organisations have sought to outpace ChatGPT’s functionality, racing to bring business-friendly AI solutions to market even as new algorithmic capabilities are becoming understood.

The inevitability of AI as a fixture in future technology is also driving demand on the business end of the equation. Different enterprises in different sectors have seen the potential of AI, and are themselves racing to incorporate it into their business. But what exactly are the potential benefits of AI integration?

The Benefits of AI Integration

The benefits that AI can bestow upon a given business change in accordance with specific usage, and even with the industry in question. Customer-facing businesses can use language models to create AI chatbots, enabling a higher standard of customer service without equivalent expenditure on 24/7 service staff. Administrative and analytic businesses, meanwhile, can delegate data entry and sorting tasks to a dedicated AI algorithm – which, in the case of legal firms, can also scour documentation for relevant information, cutting down valuable man-hours.

Key Considerations

There are many considerations that need to be acknowledged with regard to facilitating AI integration into your own business, whichever way you hope to do so. Many of these considerations are legal and logistical in nature, given the new ground that many AI algorithms tread, the unique challenges their integration and iteration pose, and the difficulties inherent to active and ongoing implementation.

As far as the legal perspective is concerned, professional counsel should be solicited in order to properly understand your business’ responsibilities and potential weaknesses. AI may be charged with handling complex datasets, and need ringfencing to prevent leaks; AI chatbots, if improperly implemented, could give users access to core systems and confidential data – potentially breaching UK privacy laws in the process.

Logistically, AI systems can be difficult to manage in situ. Most AIs are handled by the third party that developed them, but whether or not this is the case, a fundamental aspect of AI design is that they are ‘black boxes’. Due to their design as a self-learning model, their inner workings cannot be deciphered or meaningfully altered. This makes training a key part of the process, and may also introduce risk to critical AI-handled processes.