Utilising AI to Improve Efficiencies in Business
At this year's Doncaster Business Showcase (February 27th, 2025) we will be hosting a talk for businesses attending from across the local region, showcasing a range of tools that businesses can utilise to improve their productivity and operational efficiencies through AI.
But before then we wanted to give a more top-level overview of how these tools can benefit businesses. Small to medium-sized enterprises/businesses, commonly referred to as SMEs, are slowly adopting artificial intelligence (AI) into their everyday business workflow to support them in improving their overall efficiencies, enhancing productivity, and even just keeping up and competing with larger competitors in their industries.
The European Commission reports that SMEs represent 99% of all businesses throughout the UK and European Union (EU), making it essential for these businesses to embrace newer technologies and digital transformation that drive growth and reduce complexity in their daily operations.
Join us as we help you understand the benefits of utilising these new tools to automate routine tasks, identify hidden inefficiencies, and streamline decision-making. AI, Automation, and Machine Learning solutions can support businesses to not only improve their daily productivity but also ensure that their business runs more efficiently and cost-effectively.
Intelligent chatbots such as Microsoft CoPilot or the more widely used ChatGPT or Google Gemini, which utilise generative AI, Automation and Machine Learning are one approach, responding to customer enquiries promptly and consistently while enabling team members to focus on revenue-generating activities.
Natural language processing solutions such as Zendesk’s Answer Bot or even our own NEO Chat Bot (in closed Beta) allow for natural and fluent communication directly with customers, handling the more common questions (such as our “Line Zero” support queries) and passing on the complex requests that require specialised knowledge to human agents. According to HubSpot, 71% of consumers will gladly use chatbots if they improve their overall experience with a business.
Automated transcription services such as CoPilot in Teams can convert meeting dialogue into editable text, even analysing the context of meetings to be able to produce task lists, even assigning them to individuals as discussed within the meeting, freeing employees from time-consuming "meeting minutes” tasks, and reducing on human error where people may forget what was discussed and what needed to be actioned, whilst also ensuring rapid access to key information.
Predictive analytics tools from providers such as IBM Watson and Google Cloud AutoML assist in forecasting trends, assessing supply chain vulnerabilities and optimised pricing strategies, increasing the likelihood of well-informed decisions.
Microsoft CoPilot: Your AI, For Your Business Data
Microsoft’s new 365 Copilot sets out to simplify complex daily tasks by integrating the powerful large language model and automation with everyday applications that is used by 11 million SMEs around the world.
Whether it be drafting proposals in Word, generating pivot tables in Excel, creating a presentation from a report, summarising conversation threads or meetings in Teams, or gaining key insights from lengthy email chains in Outlook, all of this can be easily achieved either automatically, or with straightforward prompts.
Instead of employees spending hours on administrative tasks, these AI-powered tools ensure that menial tasks can be completed quickly and easily, reducing time and effort and that tasks which require your employee's specialist skills, training and qualifications can take priority.
How could AI tools benefit your business?
Accessible and user-friendly AI solutions such as Microsoft CoPilot and others empower small to medium-sized businesses to refine their processes, improve productivity, deliver services more efficiently, and innovate at faster paces than previously possible.
As these technologies continue to evolve, businesses around the world across wide-ranging industries can expect to gain further benefits, adapting quickly to new opportunities, and maintaining a competitive edge.
If you would like to find out how these tools and others can support your business and help you to achieve your goals, join us on February 27th at 11 am at Doncaster Racecourse and Exhibition Centre, or fill out the form below to speak with one of our specialists.