Use ChatGPT in Your Start-ups and Stay Ahead of the Game

Artifical intelligence has been dominating the game competently and ChatGPT which stands for Generative Pre-Training Transformer, a cutting-edge AI language model developed by OpenAI, has become one of the key business development tools recently.  With the support of several machine learning algorithms, it analyses vast amounts of data, learns patterns, and generates human-like responses to textual inputs. Moreover, it has the ability to provide you with context-specific data. With a diverse range of trained texts, including books, news articles, and social media posts, ChatGPT can understand natural language and respond immediately and logically. Start-ups can leverage ChatGPT to gain a competitive advantage to stay ahead of the game.

 

Customer Support
Today’s era of fast-paced customer expectations and digital world, almost all businesses are consistently improving their customer support together with e-commerce experience. The success of every start-up depends on customer satisfaction. Customers come from all walks of life and expect quick and trustworthy support whenever they face any issue related to the product or service. ChatGPT revolutionized industries by providing content for all types of corporate purposes and has been earning credits as a potential as a game-changer at an early stage. ChatGPT can learn from customer interactions and recognize common issues. So it can suggest solutions to resolve customer issues quickly, thus decreasing response times and improving customer satisfaction. You can use ChatGPT to obtain content for the following types of customer support.

  • Chat support
  • Email communication
  • Knowledge base support
  • Multilingual content
  • Q/A section
  • Self-service support
  • Social media post
  • Telephonic conversation
  • Text message
  • Video support

 

Business Operations
As start-ups have limited resources, they need to enhance their business functions to maximize productivity. With the support of ChatGPT, start-ups can streamline their operations in several ways to create clear and concise standard operating procedures, develop performance metrics for analysis and improvement, and focus on cost control and budgeting. ChatGPT has been programmed to perform human-like reactions to a selection of prompts. It has the capability to absorb conversation in a variety of languages and to come up with comprehensive writing. Here are 10 types of business functions that can be enhanced with the techniques acquired from ChatGPT.

  1. Accounting and bookkeeping
  2. Customer relationship management
  3. Financial reporting and analysis
  4. Human resources management
  5. Inventory management
  6. Marketing automation
  7. Project management
  8. Sales forecasting and analysis
  9. Supply chain management
  10. Workflow automation

 

Product Development
Product development is a major function of every business. ChatGPT can help companies by providing techniques to build a minimum viable product, conduct market research for product validation, innovate with new features and technology, and prototype and iterate for continuous improvement. ChatGPT is a useful tool to Product Managers in terms of Predictive Analysis, Outreach emails, drafting survey questions, expanding product lines, monitoring competitors, and product recommendations.

 

Types of product development

  • Agile development methodology
  • Concept testing and validation
  • Continuous improvement and iteration
  • Idea generation and ideation
  • Market research and analysis
  • Product design and prototyping
  • Quality assurance and testing
  • Release and deployment management
  • User adoption and engagement
  • User experience testing and optimization

 

Skill Development
Greater efficiency can boost the overall growth of a company, making more profits and decreasing excessive expenses. To attend training for new knowledge acquisition, observe experts for analysis and learning, practice to improve proficiency and consistency, and set specific, measurable goals for development, employee skill development is essential. Let’s see the top 10 skills that are needed for business development and use ChatGPT to obtain techniques for improving related skills.

 

Types of skills

  • Communication
  • Conflict resolution
  • Customer service
  • Diversity and inclusion
  • Leadership
  • Project management
  • Sales and marketing
  • Team building
  • Technical skills
  • Time management

AI-supported management has been relevant for companies that aim to achieve 360-degree sustainability and ChatGPT is a tool that can seed up the transition by saving time and lowering the cost of sustainability management.

 

Cost Savings
With some cost-saving techniques, start-ups can reduce their labour costs and improve their bottom line. By using GPT, companies can generate content for obtaining cost-saving techniques to conduct a cost analysis for budget optimization, implement telecommuting for office cost savings, minimize waste for cost and environmental benefits, and upgrade equipment for energy efficiency and longevity.

 

Cost-saving techniques

  • Asset management
  • Automation and robotics
  • Cloud computing and virtualization
  • Energy efficiency improvements
  • Outsourcing and offshoring
  • Process optimization
  • Procurement optimization
  • Supply chain optimization
  • Vendor contract renegotiation
  • Waste reduction and recycling

ChatGPT may not be capable of providing service as humans do but it is cost-effective considering that it can work 24/7 in the customer service department which is highly advantageous for companies especially to the ones with worldwide customer base. 

 

Market Research
If you don’t know who your customers are, your sales and marketing efforts will become worthless. You need to make a clear statistics-based picture of your customers with the support of the market research team and ChatGPT is a prevailing tool that can provide useful insights and can help companies to make good decisions. You may use ChatGPT to get the following types of techniques for performing better market research.

 

Types of market research

  • A/B testing – Comparing two versions for performance
  • Case studies – In-depth analysis for insights
  • Competitor analysis – Researching competitors for insights
  • Customer feedback – Gathering feedback about products/services
  • Industry reports – Reports on specific industries or markets
  • Interviews – One-on-one conversations for in-depth insights
  • Observation – Collecting data by watching consumers
  • Online analytics – Analyzing data from online platforms
  • Surveys – Questions to gather information from people
  • User testing – Testing product with users for insights

 

Content Marketing
Content marketing is one of the key marketing approaches focused on creating and distributing content in the digital world although it has been proven that it can be time-consuming and the process is a bit redundant.  Content must be valuable, relevant, and consistent to attract and retain the target audience and to drive profitable customer action and the good news is that you can get some tasks programmed making the work more convenient and easier using ChatGPT. With this tool, you can systematize content optimization, generate leads and do keyword research.

 

Types of content that uses ChatGPT

  • Blog posts – Written articles on a topic
  • Case studies – Customer success stories
  • FAQs – Answers to commonly asked questions
  • How-to guides – Step-by-step instructional content
  • Infographics – Visual data representation
  • Interactive content – Engaging audience participation content
  • Podcasts – Audio education or entertainment
  • Social media posts – Short updates on platforms
  • Videos – Engaging educational content
  • Whitepapers – Industry insights and solutions

 

Conclusion
ChatGPT is a highly useful AI tool that will allow start-ups to go progressive with the speed of content production. However, if you don’t know the exact direction of obtaining the required data, it’ll generate useless and uninteresting data. So you still need to be able to think before you asking data from GPT. The more creative and productive questions you ask the more highly beneficial data you can get from ChatGPT.

Defining And Getting Ready For The Future Of Connectivity

While 5G has just barely tip-toed its way into the world with its numerous promising opportunities, businesses have already started preparing for the 6G in full swing. It is often heard that connectivity has transformed business modes in the areas of safety and efficiency. This is because the revolutionary era of 6G technology is approaching us with a near-instant and unrestricted complete wireless connectivity fostering a promising future of an incredibly connected world.

6G is the acronym for the sixth generation of cellular technology. It is the next generation of mobile internet which means that it is the successor of 5G with enhanced capacity anticipated to deliver exceptional wireless connectivity and it is expected to become highly functional in the 2030s, building on social, consumer, and industry use-case mobile connectivity revolutions enabled by the promising features of 5G. 

Because there is immensely reliable low latency with 6G which means the network is highly optimized to respond with negligible delay, it offers the possibility of endless opportunities. These opportunities include three-dimensional holographic communications, the Internet of Drones (IoD), the Internet of Everything (IoE), digital twins / massively extended reality (XR) /virtual reality (VR), border surveillance, remote patient monitoring systems or telesurgery, Augmented Reality, Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) and many more, in a short way beyond the 5G can offer.

Although 6G technology is not going to be here till around the end of this decade, the business world comprehends that it is just the right time to prepare for the roadmap of forthcoming innovative technology.

So how should businesses move towards this leading-edge technology? What is the essential preparation needed for this radical era?

Let’s have look at the obligatory preparations the 6G technology calls for.

 

Build The Suitable Infrastructure

Businesses have to modify their setup to suit the new innovative technology they are adopting. The 6G technology market is anticipated to expedite massive improvements in the areas of imaging, presence technology, and location alertness. In collaboration with Artificial Intelligence, the 6G infrastructure will be capable of identifying the best place for computing to take place as well as data storage, processing, and sharing.  It is not any different for 6G too. For the implementation of this next-generation cellular technology, a business has to face the challenge of adapting effectively as well. For this, the business has to incur the cost of infrastructure that the 6G network necessitates.

Businesses must understand that for a 6g network, as it is expected to have a speed of 1Tbps, a relatively enormous infrastructure would be required. It may escalate the cost of the infrastructure, proportionately.

Another challenge that needs to be addressed is 6G networks may entail a considerable amount of spectrum to reach the projected speed. This can be very tricky as 6G networks can have just a limited amount of spectrum accessible.

 

Develop A Strong Cybersecurity Strategy

6G has the potential to connect practically 10 million IoT devices in a specific area. It will improve our dealings with Cyberattacks as researchers are saying that it will minimize the risk of digital dangers in the future. This aggravates the vulnerability of the connected devices to cybersecurity risk. With so many interconnected IoT devices, the risk is not just limited to computers and phones, in addition, it can pose threat to the network infrastructure too.

So, the outdated cybersecurity strategy has to be eliminated.  All businesses incorporating 6G technology must instigate the latest security, testing, as well as training standards and put them into practice. Robust cybersecurity must be designed and incorporated into the SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) with integral securities that detect vulnerabilities and support the network’s recovery promptly in case of any attacks.

To conclude the vision of 6G, researchers are constructing a number of approaches to areas such as antennas, spectrum regulation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning- all of which will be needing full-bodied cybersecurity features to qualify their extensive adoption by industry and consumers in the future. 

 

Revise Seamless Networks

This sixth-generation (6G) wireless communication network is predicted to incorporate aerial, terrestrial, and maritime communications into a vast network to which they would be faster, more reliable, and able to support multiple numbers of devices with very minimal latency requirements.  6G entails omnipresent connectivity and thus necessitates pioneering radio technologies that support seamless integration of all wired and wireless networks as well as non-terrestrial networks which were tough to achieve with the previous generations of cellular technology.

Also, Artificial intelligence can be incorporated as the in-built element of the 6G network model. This can aid in boosting the performance of the intricate sixth-generation networks while making the same more efficient and flexible on top. Not just that, 6G technology also calls for further developments in IoT, and additional improvement in mobile broadband, apart from ultra-reliable communications beyond 5G.

 

Employ Policy To Facilitate Innovation, Availability, And Security

This is the most appropriate stage to develop the regulatory base and form global policies for 6G networking technology. Policymakers must come together with industry leaders across the world to decide on further spectrum allocations for mobile services, IMT identifications as well as harmonization.

Countries across the world must recognize their requirements, partake in the international regulatory process and outline their roadmaps, to enable their residents and economic sectors to get the greatest value from this upcoming technology while protecting themselves and their data.

The task of businesses here is to keep eyes open for these policies and create future business ideas plans and strategies accordingly if it involves 6G technology.

 

Build Consistent Global Industry Standards

Now as businesses have their hands on 5G while weighing up and modifying the established standards they can get a clear picture of the requirements of 6G. So, this is an apt time to initiate setting the basis and standards for the next generation of connectivity. A single, international standard that is applicable to all types of industries and topographies can do a lot in ensuring consistency and economic scale during the 6G rollout. 

A solid and consistent set of standards that is valid for each and every industry, all over the world is a way to guarantee standardization. All must contribute to assessing 5G standards through various demonstrations to prepare for the needs of 6G.  It is also a way to benefit companies by making their processes efficient and will minimize geopolitical issues that might lead to standard competition. However, at this stage, only general standards and not very specific ones can be framed.

 

Develop The Right People

People like scientists, physicists, researchers, engineers, and academicians are the ones who innovate and create new technologies and make them accessible to the world. So, when the newest technology is incorporated into a business, the business must fortify itself by fostering technology experts as well.

These experts may help the business by coming up with new ideas for the 6G application which can be commercialized by the business profitably. Therefore, businesses must put the effort into building a team of proficient individuals, and provide them with resources so that they can educate and train them to their best ability and close their skill gaps.

Although 6G is merely in the research stage currently, it is crucial to prepare and plan for the coming times. Businesses must be aware of the fact that transitioning from 5G to 6G technology can throw in huge challenges and it is never too early to set off, planning for 6G. This is actually the most appropriate period to take action to keep up the momentum of 5G while opening the way for its successor – 6G technology.

Add Value to Your Business Transformation via Cloud Solutions

When you are looking for world-shattering approaches to transform your business, you face roadblocks because of limited resources and a lesser amount of development strategies. If you dive deep into cloud computing, you may add value with unlimited sources and strategies to your business transformations that will help you accelerate digital transformation. According to the statement of Fortune Business Insights, the market size of global cloud computing is predicted to reach USD 1,712.44 billion in 2029, at a CAGR of 19.9% during the period of year 2022-2029.

Everything in the world is moving fast in the age of digitization. We could have come across a sudden rise and fall in several industries. If companies need to meet modern-day demands, they can go for cloud computing to transform their businesses and stay ahead of the curve. Cloud computing offers you the fastest transformations to help grow your business with advanced resources such as servers, storage, networking, databases, software, analytics, and intelligence. Organizations could leverage the power of the cloud to move quicker, respond faster, and improve new revenue streams, generating exponential, lasting value. In this article, let’s analyse in detail how cloud computing could contribute more to business transformations.

Agility

The business model of every company needs to be constantly upgraded with innovative elements, the latest trends, or the requirements of new generations. Cloud computing delivers the essential infrastructure with continuous optimization across the organization with great agility which is not possible earlier. When companies are ready to be based on utilizing cloud computing elements, firms get ready to stay agile and are willing for the transition.

  • Ability to quickly adapt to market changes
  • Easy to collaborate with others
  • Easy to customize solutions
  • Easy to scale up/down
  • Easy to test and experiment
  • Faster time to market
  • Rapid deployment of new features
  • Reduced development time and costs
  • Reduced time to deploy
  • Reduced time to troubleshoot

Computing competencies are simply limitless.

Cost Effectiveness

Generally, companies are not interested to invest more and more to create a new infrastructure, as it needs a lot of cost and labour effectiveness. They want to advance the existing infrastructure with cost-effective approaches. Most companies in the world play this cost-effective business game for a long time. Nowadays, cloud computing allows companies to enhance their business functions with the minimum resources they use. When it comes to quick overall development, the cloud is, undeniably, more suitable as compared to other solutions.

  • Increased cost transparency
  • Lower energy costs
  • No maintenance fees
  • No need for physical storage
  • No need for upfront investment
  • Pay-as-you-go pricing model
  • Reduced need for hardware
  • Reduced software licensing costs
  • Reduced staffing requirements
  • Scalable usage and costs

Accessibility

For more than one decade, several companies have started developing continuously to promote their brands in the form of apps, as apps are delivering effective customer experiences with many advantages such as improved ROI, reduced complexity, and less manual operations.

Gradually, apps of all big enterprises and several SMEs are being more widely used by customers from all walks of life, which increase the demand for management of application integration in the form of cloud computing. Apps connected to cloud computing give users the ability to use them effectively, as cloud-based applications can also be accessed from any location using any internet-connected devices such as PCs, smartphones, and tablets.

  • Accessibility on-the-go
  • Anytime, anywhere access
  • Easy accessibility features
  • Global accessibility
  • Improved customer experience
  • Improved user experience
  • Increased collaboration
  • Increased engagement
  • Multi-device compatibility
  • Reduced barrier to entry

Security

Infrastructural issues and data loss are common in the digital world. However, when it comes to moving data to cloud computing, it authentically decreases the dangers of data loss, illegal access, and any other problems related to infrastructure. We can also protect data from potential dangers, as backups are generated automatically. Companies prefer to cloud computing because of more secure industry-wide advancements developed by cloud service providers and numerous cloud providers offer a wide set of technologies, policies, and controls that reinforce the security posture of any business by helping protect your data, application, and infrastructure from possible threats. Here below are some security techniques of cloud computing that companies might use in their business functions.

  • Advanced encryption technologies
  • Automatic software updates
  • Compliance with industry regulations
  • Dedicated firewalls and intrusion detection
  • Dedicated security teams
  • Reduced risk of data breaches
  • Regular security audits and testing
  • Regular security updates
  • Two-factor authentication options
  • User access control and monitoring

Scalability

Cloud scalability in cloud computing can increase or decrease IT resources as required to meet the changing demands of every situation and it is at its peak of becoming the new normal. Cloud solutions provide resolutions to anticipate problems like cybersecurity, managing big data, and quality control. To add up, evolving technologies such as AI are becoming accessible through cloud solutions. Companies will have an opportunity to increase data storage capacity, processing power, and networking by joining cloud computing infrastructure. This is one of the most technical, beneficial, and cost-effective features of cloud computing, as companies can grow up or down to meet the demands depending on the season, development, projects, etc. By distributing workloads among more servers as demand rises, cloud computing empowers businesses to maintain business continuity while attaining maximum benefits.

  • Access to advanced technologies
  • Easy to scale up/down
  • No need for hardware upgrades
  • Pay-as-you-go pricing model
  • Reduced energy costs
  • Reduced need for in-house IT staff
  • Reduced need for physical storage
  • Reduced software licensing costs
  • Reduced staffing requirements
  • Scalable usage and costs

Conclusion

Apart from the benefits given above, there can be several other reasons to adopt cloud computing. Hence, companies should assess their needs and solutions to create a future-based cloud migration plan. According to the study by Gartner, 95% of data workloads will be hosted in the form of the cloud by 2025, up from 30% in 2021. They have predicted that over 95% of businesses would go for cloud computing by 2025. For more efficient business operations and cost savings, every company should adopt cloud computing as it can support data backups and redundancy, disaster recovery solutions, and reduced risk of data loss.

Must-have Digital Technologies for Optimizing CX in 2023

A digital-first approach is a key marketing aspect in 2023, as it empowers companies to reach and engage with customers through various digital channels. The majority of customers expect quick and convenient access to information and services. Hence, digital channels can help companies advance customer satisfaction, stay ahead of competitors, and drive growth. In this article, let’s study the top ten must-have digital technologies for optimizing CX in 2023. By embracing these ten tools and technologies, companies can increase the quality of customer service without increasing costs.

  1. Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS)

CCaaS is a cloud-based solution that allows companies to use the software provided by a CCS provider. It is another option for an on-premises call center and bundles an entire communication solution fixated on scalable customer experience. By lowering the amount of technology, companies can reduce the requirement for internal IT support. Due to the ability to pay for the essential technology in a consumption model, they can provide better service to their clients with minimum investment. It will also empower companies to provide an omnichannel communication strategy while delivering an excellent customer experience.

  1. Marketing automation software

This type of software helps companies send messages to their target customers based on their purchase history, demographics, and interests. It is user-friendly and can create campaigns with just one click. It has a streamlined user interface and drag-and-drop components which is very much the same as the other apps being used nowadays. With the support of this software, all types of companies can develop and execute marketing campaigns quickly and effortlessly.  So companies can reduce their time consumption for customer service so that they can focus on solving critical issues.

Benefits of Marketing Automation Software

  • Better customer experience
  • Cross-channel marketing campaigns
  • Full control of customer interactions
  • Value-added accountability in the workplace
  • Increased lead-to-sale conversion rates
  • Marketing and sales alignment
  • More space for creativity
  • Smooth customer service
  • Customized marketing strategies
  • Precise reporting
  • Reduces staffing expenses
  1. Chatbots

Chatbots work with the support of AI to have conversations with human customers via the internet. Companies have developed various chatbots for customer support activities and large number of brands have invested to Chatbots to improve their customer experience. Several firms, due to the ability of chatbots to respond to client inquiries, have installed on their websites to meet modern consumer needs.

Benefits of Chatbots

  • More generated leads and increased sales
  • Better customer insights with 24/7 availability
  • Better user experience because of multilingual support
  • Enhances operational efficiency
  • Cuts expenses to businesses while giving convenience to customers
  1. Customer relationship management (CRM) systems

Managing customer relationships is one of the key technologies that provide a great experience to companies. It assists customer-centric companies by placing customers at the centre of the business with proper strategy and plans.  Technology nowadays can improve human potential by having the proper CRM technology and tools that are capable of doing the processes and helping people to focus on their priorities requiring human touch.   A CRM system empowers companies to keep track of all types of data related to customer interactions. It also helps companies handle their pipeline, discover opportunities, and quantify the success of digital marketing campaigns.

Benefits of CRM

  • Automated sales reports with more accurate sales forecasting
  • Better customer service with increased sales
  • Centralized database of information
  • Higher productivity and efficiency with detailed analytics
  • Streamlined internal communications
  • Helps manage campaigns across sales and marketing
  • Consistently generate quality leads and opportunities
  • Customized customer experience
  1. Email marketing software

Email will always be an essential digital marketing component despite the fact that there are new online platforms being launched. It’s a recognized method of boosting customer acquisition and engagement. Email marketing software empowers companies to design and send customized email messages to their customers. With various types of messages such as product announcements, coupons, or information about upcoming events, it supports companies to track the success of their marketing campaigns. It also helps companies to identify the right customers that are likely to respond to particular types of offers.

Benefits of Email Marketing Software

  • Collecting feedback and surveys
  • Communicating with your audience
  • Creating personalized content
  • Generating traffic to your site
  • Having a setting for self-promotion
  • Producing cost-effective and timely campaigns
  • Providing more value to your audience

 

  • Reaching the right people at the right time
  • Heightens Brand Awareness
  • Minimize expenses for the promotion campaigns and overall business
  1. Mixed realities

Mixed realities, the combined forms of Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), transform how customers and sales reps communicate and interact. Basic examples for this are virtual makeup applications and Snapchat or Instagram filters. In order to come up with a mixed reality experience, you don’t need to stress about physical hindrances, but you will be needing artificial intelligence and cloud computing. This technology will reimagine how sales reps or agents can interact with customers more effectively by adding more visual value to their communications. Companies can suggest better solutions with the support of an immersive visual user experience.

Sectors that need the support of Mixed Realities

  • Construction
  • E-learning
  • Entertainment
  • Healthcare
  • Manufacturing
  • Retail
  • Sports
  • Tourism
  • Construction and Engineering
  • Training
  • Marketing
  1. Self-Service

Customer self-service portals have become an excellent section, as they enable customers to help themselves. Self-service technology puts a control power in our hands. It permits is to perform various tasks without needing the help of another human being and almost all of us come across self-service technology daily from digital touchpads that can take orders in restaurants to gas stations with credit card readers. Without any fair knowledge of technology, customers can easily browse through the knowledge base, use self-service tools, and contact customer support team if they want to know more details about products and services.

Benefits of Self-service

  • It boosts website traffic.
  • It advances agent productivity.
  • It leverages personalised information.
  • It decreases customer service costs.
  • It imparts new skills to customers.
  • It provides bigger customer retention
  • 24/7 availability
  • It heightens customer satisfaction

 

  1. Speech analytics

We can define speech analytics as a contact hub intelligence instrument that uses technologies such as audio analysis, data visualization, natural language processing and automatic speech recognition. It is widely used for automated surveys, letting customers respond to survey questions via call and extracting insights. Speech analytics can reveal keywords or themes that normally provoke certain feelings. With the support of speech analytics, companies can identify emotional signals, customers’ sentiments, and positive interactions.

Benefits of Speech Analytics

  • Identifying customer needs and interests
  • Offering personalized services
  • Understanding customers better
  • Supported training data and performance improvement
  • Provides feedback to fasten up sales
  1. Customer experience management (CXM) systems

For the past years, companies have been prioritizing the relevance of managing cuthe stomer experience and software firms have been working on creating a CRM software to help businesses handle their customers. A CXM system goes beyond managing CRM. With the ability to collect feedback and data from all customer touchpoints, it can provide a holistic view of the customer experience. CXM focuses on the listening part and hotels, airlines and F&B industry are realizing its value to customer experience. CXM is driving growth for companies such as retail, CPG, media, technology, healthcare, and financial services.  It can advance marketing campaigns, customer interactions, and website design.

Benefits of CXM

  • Better customer engagement
  • Higher customer retention
  • Improved crisis management
  • Increased brand equity
  • Reduced costs of service and marketing
  1. Customer data platform (CDP)

A customer Data Platform (CDP) is a set of applications that works together to develop a unified permanent customer database. It helps a business to get to know their customers more. CDP’s main function is to construct an integrated client database that can at the same time address multiple downstream problems. This database will have an access to other applications. Data gathered from various sources is cleansed and merged to provide a comprehensive consumer profile. This data is subsequently accessible to other marketing platforms. With the support of the insights from the CDP, companies can predict customer behaviour and perform a host of tasks based on data.

Benefits of CDP

  • Eliminating data silos
  • Ensuring data protection and privacy
  • Increasing operational efficiency
  • Customized communication
  • Systematize processes
  • Come up with time-suitable marketing messages
  • Heightens customer engagement

Conclusion

The above digital technologies can play a key role in the process of customer experience optimization. By leveraging these ten technologies, companies can improve their interactions with customers and enhance their customer experience. Nevertheless, companies should be aware of the appropriate technologies that will be able to reach and engage their target audience for their every promotion, since every type of promotion needs unique channels. And also companies should ensure that they have properly implemented these technologies for getting better results.

 

Top Artificial Intelligence Trends to Capture the Global Tech Market

Artificial intelligence is the hottest technology in the global tech market. It has transformed the corporate world with innovative processes and gadgets and made everyone’s life more convenient. AI models provide the world with autonomous systems, cybersecurity, automation, RPA, etc. With artificial intelligence trends to boost productivity and efficiency, tech companies are changing the way we live. This article will help you to understand the power of artificial intelligence by explaining the current trends and the following are the top artificial intelligence trends in 2023 in the tech market:

Predictive analytics
Predictive analytics is the most important trend of artificial intelligence since it is highly helpful for better business and market research. It has gained a number of attention in recent years in the areas of machine learning and big data. With the support of data, statistical algorithms, and machine learning techniques, companies can make decisions for future outcomes. The key theme of this technique is to utilize the trends of the past to provide the best in the future. This trend has captured the attention of business analysts and market experts.

Embedded Application (EA)
The essential attributes of Embedded Application are fault tolerance, real-time, reliability, portability, and flexibility. This AI software application perpetually resides in a consumer or industrial device. This AI-based software and is programmed to have a special function in a device with a specific purpose that must meet size, time, energy, and memory constraints. There are different types of embedded systems in various gadgets and devices such as smartphones, digital cameras, digital wristwatches, embedded medical devices, and sensors. Embedded systems are transforming our lifestyles by creating newer opportunities and challenges. This is one of the best AI trends to follow if entrepreneurs want to play well in the tech market.

The Metaverse
Metaverse is an immersive virtual world in which everyone can work, play, live, transact, and socialise, enabled by the practice of mixed reality (virtual reality and augmented reality). Here, users are linked to their avatars or other digital illustration and the information gathered about their activities is personal data, which is accountable to data protection and privacy laws. It is the next evolution of the digital world, facilitated by multiple technologies including blockchain, artificial intelligence, smart objects, and edge computing. In a recent market study, the Metaverse Technology market had a valuation of $32 billion in 2021 and is possible to become $224 billion by 2030.

In the next decade onwards, the Metaverse is likely to provide the most incredible business opportunities to make the world evolve with innovative business concepts. Furthermore, a number of remarkable technologies are introduced for taking place within the Metaverse that could provide innovative business opportunities. Companies can enter into the Metaverse trends that are going to make our life prosperous in the future.

Security and Surveillance
A new level of security and surveillance has also become one of the best trends in artificial intelligence technologies. Surveillance technology is a software useful for monitoring activities, behaviour, and handling information. With video surveillance that combines biometric authentication using face and voice recognition with automated image analysis, we could more accurately identify objects. With the support of video capture and analysis software, we can help secure large public and private spaces by spotting potential threats. Companies may focus on this trend to protect every organization with the security and surveillance techniques of AI. It is said that this year, the global surveillance technology market had a valuation of over 130 billion U.S. dollars.

Manufacturing
Manufacturing has changed and entered a dynamic phase. It has promoted innovation and productivity in today’s economy and a global transformation is in progress to authorize manufacturing with AI.  AI plays various roles in manufacturing sectors. For example, automated production control is used to monitor equipment and check for quality control. AI-powered inspection is used to control the suitability of components for assembling cars and to sense product defects on the conveyor. In manufacturing, AI also plays a major role in using technology to automate multifaceted tasks and unearthing formerly unidentified patterns in manufacturing processes.

Fintech
It is a must for any financial industry to ensure its traditional priorities such as the speed and accuracy of transactions, the prevention of errors and abuses, the preservation of data privacy, and the responsibility for the confidentiality of transactions. The fast growth of Fintech in several sectors has created many benefits that include:

  • The key benefits of vendors are faster processes in accessibility and loan approvals. On account of a quick and hassle-free process, users become more adaptable to this new fast-paced technology.
  • In a one-stop platform, users can enjoy a very easy payment method and feel a better experience whenever they process different types of payments from various devices such as smartphones and tablets.
  • Several latest systems depend on chatbots and robot advisors to help users understand their finances. As Fintech comes with a very low-cost option, customers get more useful functions.
  • Fintech is powerful software that is very helpful for companies to collect payments accurately. It also helps everyone to know their updated account status.

It is predicted that the Global Financial Technology market will grow progressively and is expected to reach approximately $324 billion market value by 2026.

Healthcare
There is an improved uptake of AI technologies in the healthcare sector and the efficiency, accuracy, and convenience of AI in the healthcare sector played a big part in the driving factor for its growth in the global technology market. Artificial intelligence has already proven that it is a great boon to healthcare providers since it could facilitate care more efficiently and allow patients greater access to safe medical care. It will transform many aspects of patient care together with the related administrative processes. The potential benefits of artificial intelligence in the healthcare market are enormous as it:

  • Develops healthcare sectors with more trustworthy methods.
  • Provides patients with medical records of all communications and prescriptions.
  • Offers a great deal of transparent communication related to patient billing.
  • Allows healthcare professionals to access the patient’s data easily.
  • Provides data which that cannot be altered by anyone.

AI and IoT
Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things have provided magnificent changes in today’s business environment. When we connect any internet-connected devices with other gadgets wirelessly, the gadgets in this system can transmit and receive data from each other. With the support of IoT, workplaces and modern management have become smart with various hands-on facilities. It also supports companies to reduce operational costs and enhance overall efficiency and productivity. As IoT comes along with blockchain technology, companies can advance IoT industry processes to protect communications, modernize the software, and monitor usage and functions on the whole.

The AI in IoT market size is said to grow to 34 Billion USD in 2027 and the growing need of refining the human-machine and machine-to-machine interaction across households, healthcare and transportation activities will fasten the growth of AI in the IoT market for the coming years.

Conclusion
Artificial intelligence is capable to transform any type of organization. It has the key to unlocking a digital world where we can make more informed decisions based on data. The domination of AI affects every sector, from manufacturing to finance, bringing about never before seen increases in efficiency and productivity. Since every sector starts experimenting with this technology, the trends of AI keep evolving. Embrace AI, the benefits of AI to business are immense if used wisely.

Why Machine Learning and the ‘New AI’ won’t be Replacing your Friendly Post – Keynesian Macroeconomist Anytime Soon

Abstract

The paper provides a brief history of recent developments in machine learning and the “New AI”.  This sets the scene for a review of debates over machine learning and scientific practice, which brings to the forefront the hubris of those appealing to a naïve form of materialism in this specific domain at the intersection between philosophy and sociology of science. The paper then explores the “unreasonable effectiveness” of machine learning to shine a spot-light on the limitations of contemporary techniques. The resulting insights are subsequently applied to the particular question of whether current machine learning platforms could capture key elements responsible for the complexity of real-world macroeconomic phenomena as these have been understood by Post Keynesian economists. After concluding in the negative, the paper goes on to examine whether efforts to extend deep learning through differential programming could overcome some of the previously discussed limitations and stumbling blocks.

Keywords: machine learning, the “New AI”, macroeconomic modelling, fixed-point theorems, backpropagation, the capital debates, uncertainty, financial instability, differential programming

Introduction

An avalanche of recent publications (Zuboff, 2019; Gershenfeld, Gershenfeld & Gershenfeld, 2017; Carr, 2010; Lovelock, 2019; and Tegmark, 2017) reflect the emotional range of our current obsessions about the Digital Economy, which are concerned, respectively, with: its inherent capacity for surveillance, domination, and control; its opportunities for extending the powers of digital fabrication systems to all members of the community; its retarding effects on deep concept formation and long-term memory; the prospect of being watched over by “machines of loving grace” that control our energy grids, transport and weapon systems; and, the limitless prospects for the evolution of AI, through procedures of “recursive self-improvement”. In my own contribution to the analysis of the digital economy (Juniper, 2018), I discuss machine learning and AI from a philosophical perspective that is informed by Marx, Schelling, Peirce and Steigler, arguing for the development of new semantic technologies based on diagrammatic reasoning, that could provide users with more insight and control over applications.[1]

AI and Machine Learning practitioners have also embraced the new technology of Deep Learning Convolution Neural Networks (DLCNNs), Recursive Neural Networks, and Reservoir Neural Networks with a mixture of both hubris and concern[2]. In an influential 2008 article in Wired magazine, Chris Anderson claimed that these new techniques no longer required a resort to scientific theories, hypotheses, or processes of causal inference because the data effectively “speak for themselves”. In his response to Anderson’s claims, Mazzochi (2015) has observed that although the new approaches to machine learning have certainly increased our capacity to find patterns (which are often non-linear in nature), correlations are not all there is to know. Mazzochi insists that they cannot tell us precisely why something is happening, although they may alert us to the fact that something may be happening. Likewise, Kitchin (2014) complains that the data never “speak for themselves”, as they shaped by the platform, data ontology, chosen algorithms and so forth. Moreover, not only do scientists have to explain the “what”, they also have to explain the “why”. For Lin (2015) the whole debate reflects a confusion between the specific goal of (i) better science; and that of, (ii) better engineering (understood in computational terms). While the first goal may be helpful, it is certainly not necessary for the second, which he argues has certainly been furthered by the emerging deep-learning techniques[3].

In what follows, I want to briefly evaluate these new approaches to machine learning, from the perspective of a Post Keynesian economist, in terms of how they could specifically contribute to a deeper understanding of macroeconomic analysis. To this end, I shall investigate thoughtful explanations for the “unreasonable effectiveness” of deep-learning techniques, which will therefore focus on the modelling, estimation, and (decentralised) control of system (-of systems) rather than image classification or natural language processing.

The “Unreasonable effectiveness” of the New AI

Machine learning is but one aspect of Artificial Intelligence. In the 1980s, DARPA temporarily withdrew funding for US research in this field because it wasn’t delivering on what it had promised. Rodney Brooks has explained that this stumbling block was overcome by the development of the New AI, which coincided with the development of Deep Learning techniques characterised by very large neural networks featuring multiple hidden layers and weight sharing. In Brooks’ case, the reasoning behind his own contributions to the New AI were based on the straightforward idea that previous efforts had foundered on the attempt to combine perception, action, and logical inference “subsystems” into one integrated system. Accordingly, logical “inference engines” were removed from the whole process so that system developers and software engineers could just focus on more straightforward modules for perception and action. Intelligence would then arise spontaneously at the intersection between perception and action in a decentralized, but effective manner.

One example of this would be the ability of social media to classify and label images. Donald Trump could then, perhaps, be informed about those images having the greatest influence over his constituency, without worrying about the truth-content that may be possessed by any of the individual images (see Bengio et al., 2014, for a technical overview of this machine learning capability). Another example of relevance to the research of Brooks, would be an autonomous rover navigating its way along a Martian dust plain, that is confronted by a large rock in its path. Actuators and motors could then move the rover away from the obstacle so that it could once again advance unimpeded along its chosen trajectory—this would be a clear instance of decentralized intelligence!

In their efforts to explain the effectiveness of machine learning in a natural science context, Lin, Tegmark, and Rodnick (2017), consider the capacity of deep learning techniques in reproducing Truncated Taylor series for Hamiltonians.  As Poggio et al., (2017) demonstrate, this can be accomplished because a multi-layered neural network can be formally interpreted as a machine representing a function of functions of functions… :

e.g.

At the end of the chain we arrive at simple, localized functions, with more general and global functions situated at higher levels in the hierarchy. Lin, Tegmark, and Rodnick (2017) observe that this formalism would suffice for the representation of a range of simple polynomials that are to be found in the mathematical physics literature (of degree 2-4 for the Navier-Stokes equations or Maxwell’s equations). They explain why such simple polynomials characterise a range of empirically observable phenomena in the physical sciences, in terms of three dominant features, namely: sparseness, symmetry, and low-order[4]. Poggio et al., (2017) examine this polynomial approximating ability of DLCNNs, also noting that sparse polynomials are easier to learn than generic ones owing to the parsimonious number of terms, trainable parameters, and the associated VC dimension of the equations (which are all exponential in the number of variables). The same thing applies to highly variable Boolean functions (in the sense of having high frequencies in their Fourier spectrum). Lin, Tegmark, and Rodnick (2017) go on to consider noise from a cosmological perspective, noting that background radiation, operating as a potential source of perturbations to an observed system, can be described as a relatively well-behaved Markov process.

In both of these cases, we can discern nothing that is strictly comparable with the dynamics Post Keynesian theory, once we have abandoned the Ramsey-Keynes (i.e. neoclassical) growth model as the driver of long -run behaviour in a macroeconomy. From a Post Keynesian perspective, the macroeconomy can only ever be provisionally described by a system of differential equations characterised by well-behaved asymptotic properties of convergence to a unique and stable equilibrium.

The Macroeconomy from a Post Keynesian Perspective:

In The General Theory, Keynes (1936) argued that short-run equilibrium could be described by the “Point of Effective Demand”, which occurs in remuneration-employment space, at the point of intersection between aggregate expenditure ( in the form of expected proceeds associated with a certain level of employment) and aggregate supply (in the form of actual proceeds elicited by certain level of employment). At this point of intersection, the expectation of proceeds formed by firms in aggregate is fulfilled, so that there is no incentive for firms to change their existing offers of employment. However, this can occur at a variety of different levels of employment (and thus unemployment).

For Keynes, short-run equilibrium is conceived in terms of a simple metaphor of a glass rolling on a table rather than that of a ball rolling along in a smooth bowl with a clearly defined minimum. When it comes to the determination of adjustments to some long-run full-employment equilibrium, Keynes was no less skeptical. Against the “Treasury-line” of Arthur Pigou, Keynes argued that there were no “automatic stabilizers” that could come into operation. Pigou claimed that with rising unemployment wages would begin to fall, and prices along with them. This would make consumers and firms wealthier in real terms, occasioning a rise in aggregate levels of spending. Instead, Keynes insisted that two other negative influences would come into play, detracting from growth. First, he introduced Irving Fisher’s notion of debt-deflation. According to Fisher’s theory, falling prices would transfer income from high-spending borrowers to low-spending lenders, because each agent was locked in to nominal rather than real or indexed contracts. Second, the increasing uncertainty occasioned by falling aggregate demand and employment, would increase the preference for liquid assets across the liquidity spectrum ranging from money or near-money (the most liquid), through short-term fixed interest securities through to long-term fixed interest securities and equities and, ultimately, physical plant and equipment (the least liquid of assets).

In formal terms, the uncertainty responsible for this phenomenon of liquidity preference can be represented by decision-making techniques based on multiple priors, sub-additive distributions, or fuzzy measure theory (Juniper, 2005). Let us take the first of these formalisms, incorporated into contemporary models of risk-sensitive control in systems characterised by a stochastic uncertainty constraint (measuring the gap between free and bound entropy) accounting for some composite of observation error, external perturbations, and model uncertainty. While the stochastic uncertainty constraint can be interpreted in ontological terms as one representing currently unknown but potentially knowable information (i.e. ambiguity), it can also be interpreted in terms of information that could never be known (i.e. fundamental uncertainty). For Keynes, calculations of expected returns were mere “conventions” designed to calm our disquietude, but they could never remove uncertainty by converting it into certainty equivalents.

Another source of both short-run and long-run departure from equilibrium has been described in Hyman Minsky’s (1992) analysis of Financial Instability, which was heavily influenced by both Keynes Michal Kalecki. As the economy began to recover from a period of crisis or instability, Minsky argued that endogenous forces would come into play that would eventually drive the system back into crisis. Stability would gradually be transformed into instability and crisis. On the return to a stable expansion path, after firms and households had repaired their balance-sheet structures, financial fragility would begin to increase as agents steadily came to rely more on external sources of finance, as firms began to defer the break-even times of their investment projects, and as overall levels of diversification in the economy steadily came to be eroded (see Barwell and Burrows, 2011, for an influential Bank of England study of Minskyian financial instability).  Minsky saw securitization (e.g. in the form of collateralized debt obligations etc.) as an additional source of fragility due to its corrosive effects on the underwriting system (effects that could never be entirely tamed through a resort to credit default swaps or more sophisticated hedging procedures). For Minsky, conditions of fragility, established preceding and during a crisis may only be partially overcome in the recovery stage, thus becoming responsible for ever deeper (hysteric) crises in the future[5].

An additional, perhaps more fundamental, reason for long-run instability is revealed by Piero Sraffa’s (1960) insights into the structural nature of shifts in the patterns of accumulation, within a multisectoral economy, as embodied in the notion of an invariant standard of value. Sraffa interprets David Ricardo’s quest for a standard commodity—one whose value would not change when the distribution of income between wages and profits was allowed to vary—as a quest that was ultimately self-defeating. This is because any standard commodity would have to be formally constructed with weights determined by the eigenvalue-structure of the input-output matrix. Nevertheless, changes in income distribution would lead to shifts in the composition of demand that, in turn would induce increasing or decreasing returns to scale. This would feed back onto the eigen-value structure of the input-output matrix, in turn requiring the calculation of another standard commodity (see Andrews, 2015, and Martins, 2019, for interpretations of Sraffa advanced along these lines). If we return to the case of the neoclassical growth model, Sraffa’s contribution to the debates in capital theory has completely undermined any notion of an optimal or “natural rate of interest” (Sraffa, 1960; Burmeister, 2000). From a policy perspective, this justifies an “anchoring” role for government policy interventions which aim to provide for both stability and greater equity in regard to both the minimum-wage (as an anchor for wage relativities) and determination of the overnight or ‘target’ rate of interest (as an anchor for relative rates-of-return).

From a modelling perspective, Martins (2019) insists that Sraffa drew a sharp distinction between a notion of ‘logical’ time (which is of relevance to the determination of “reproduction prices” on the basis of the labour theory of value, on the basis of a “snapshot” characterization of current input-output relations) and it’s counterpart, historical time (which is of relevance to the determination of social norms such as the subsistence wage, or policies of dividend-retention). When constructing stock-flow-consistent macroeconomic model this same distinction carries over to the historical determination of key stock-flow norms, which govern long-run behaviour in the model. Of course, in a long-run macroeconomic setting, fiscal and monetary policy interventions are also crucial inputs into the calculation of benchmark rates of accumulation (a feature which serves to distinguish these Post-Keynesian models from their neoclassical counterparts).[6]

Machine Learning and Fixed-point Theorems

In this paper’s discussion of macroeconomic phenomena, I have chosen to focus heavily on the determinants of movements away from stable, unique equilibria, in both the short-run and the long-run. Notions of equilibrium are central to issues of effectiveness in both econometrics and machine-learning. Of pertinence to the former, is the technique of cointegration and error-correction modelling. While the cointegrating vector represents a long-equilibrium, the error-correction process represents adjustment towards this equilibrium.  In a machine-learning context, presumptions of equilibrium underpin a variety of fixed-point theorems that play a crucial role in: (i) techniques of data reduction; (ii) efforts to eliminate redundancy within the network itself with the ultimate aim of overcoming the infamous “curse of dimensionality”, while preserving “richness of interaction”; and, (iii) the optimal tuning of parameters (and hyper-parameters that govern the overall model architecture). Specific techniques of data compression, such as Randomized Numerical Linear Algebra (Drineas and Mahoney, 2017), rely on mathematical techniques such as Moore-Penrose inverses and Tikhanov regularization theory (Barata and Hussein, 2011). Notions of optimization are a critical element in the application of these techniques. This applies, especially, to the gradient descent algorithms that are deployed for the tuning of parameters (and sometimes hyper-parameters) within the neural network. Techniques of tensor contraction and singular value decomposition are also drawn upon for dimensionality reduction is complex tensor networks (Cichoki et al., 2016, 2017). Wherever and whenever optimization techniques are required, some kind of fixed-point theorem comes into play. The relationship between fixed-point theorems, asymptotic theory, and notions of equilibrium in complex systems is not straightforward. See both Prokopenko et al., 2019 and Yanofsky, 2003, for a wide-ranging discussion of this issue, which opens onto a discussion of many inter-related “paradoxes of self-referentiality”.

For example, a highly-specialized literature on neural tangent kernels focuses on how kernel-based techniques can be applied in a machine learning context, to ensure that local rather than global maxima or minima are avoided during the whole process of gradient descent (see Yang, 2019). Here, the invariant characteristics of the kernel guarantee that tuning would satisfy certain robustness properties. An associated body of research on the tuning of parameters at the “edge of chaos”, highlights the importance of applying optimization algorithms close to the boundary of, but never within the chaotic region of dynamic flow (see Bietti and Mairal 2019, and Bertschinger and Natschläger, 2004). There are subtle formal linkages between the properties of neural tangent kernels and notions of optimization at the edge-of-chaos that I am unable to do justice to in this paper.

From a Post Keynesian perspective and despite this evolution in our understanding of optimization in a machine learning context, it would seem that efforts to apply the existing panoply of deep learning techniques may be thwarted by contrariwise aspects of the behaviour of dynamic macroeconomic system. For macroeconomists working with Real Business Cycle Models and their derivatives, none of this is seen as a problem because unreasonably-behaved dynamics are usually precluded by assumption. Although perturbations are seen to drive the business cycle in these models, agents are assumed to make optimal use of information, in the full knowledge of how the economy operates, so that government interventions simply pull the economy further away from equilibrium by adding more noise to the system. Although more recent dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models allow for various forms of market failure, notions of long-run equilibrium still play a fundamental role[7]. Instead, in a more realistic, Post Keynesian world, optimization algorithms would have to work very hard in their pursuit of what amounts to a “will-o-the-wisp”: namely, a system characterised by processes of shifting and non-stationary (hysteretic) equilibria[8].

Differential Programming

Recent discussions of machine learning and AI, have emphasized the significance of developments in differential programming. Yann LeCun (2018), one of the major contributors to the new Deep learning paradigm has noted that,

An increasingly large number of people are defining the networks procedurally in a data-dependent way (with loops and conditionals), allowing them to change dynamically as a function of the input data fed to them. It’s really very much like a regular program, except it’s parameterized, automatically differentiated, and trainable/optimizable.

One way of understanding this approach is to think of something that is a cross between a dynamic network of nodes and edges and a spread sheet. Each node contains a variety of functional formulas that draw on the inputs from other nodes and provides outputs that in turn, either feed into other nodes or can be observed by scopes. However, techniques of backpropagation and automatic differentiation can be applied to the entire network (using the chain rule while unfurling each of the paths in the network on the basis of Taylors series representations of each formula). This capability promises to overcome the limitations of econometric techniques when it comes to the estimation of large-scale models. For example, techniques of structural vector autoregression, which are multivariate extensions to univariate error-correction modelling techniques can only be applied to highly parsimonious, small-scale systems of equations.

Based on the initial work of Ehrhard and Regnier (2003), a flurry of research papers now deal with extensions to functional programming techniques to account for partial derivatives (Plotkin, 2020), higher-order differentiation and tensor calculus on manifolds (Cruttwell, Gallagher, & MacAdam, 2019), how best to account for computational effects (which are described in Rivas, 2018), and industrial-scale software engineering (The Statebox Team, 2019). Members of the functional programming and applied category theory community have drawn on the notion of a lens, as means for accommodating the bidirectional[9] nature of backpropagation[10] (Clarke et al., 2020; Spivak, 2019; Fong, Spivak and Tuyéras, 2017).

Conclusion

The potential flexibility and power of differential programming, could usher in a new era of policy-driven modelling, by allowing researchers to combine (i) traditionally aggregative macroeconomic models with multi-sectoral models of price and output determination (e.g. stock-flow-consistent Post Keynesian models and Sraffian or Marxian models of inter-sectoral production relationships); discrete-time and continuous-time models (i.e. hybrid systems represented integro-differential equations), and both linear and non-linear dynamics. This would clearly support efforts to develop more realistic models of economic phenomena.

The development of network-based models of dynamic systems has been given impetus by research in three main domains: brain science imaging, quantum tensor networks, and Geographical Information Systems in each case, tensor analysis of multiple-input and multiple-output nodes has played a key role. In each of these cases, the complexity associated with tensor algebra has been ameliorated by the deployment of diagrammatic techniques based on the respective use of Markov-Penrose’ diagrams, the diagrammatic Z-X calculus, and the development of “region-” rather than “point”-based topologies and mereologies. These same diagrammatic techniques have been taken up by the Applied Category Theory community to achieve both a deeper and more user-friendly understanding of lenses and other optics (Boisseau, 2020; Riley, 2018), alongside diagrammatic approaches to simply-typed, differential, and integral, versions of the lambda calculus (Lemay, 2017, Zeilberger and Giorgetti, 2015).

As I have argued, in more general terms, in Juniper (2018), the development of new software platforms based on diagrammatic reasoning could mean that differential programming techniques could potentially be disseminated to a much larger number of users who might have limited programming knowledge or skill (to some extent, today’s spreadsheets provide an example of this)[11]. In the case of AI, this could allow workers to regain control over machines which had previously either operated “behind their backs” or else, on the basis of highly specialized expertise. Improvements of this kind also have the potential to support higher levels of collaboration in innovation at the point-of-production. In the more restricted macroeconomic context, modelling could become less of a “black-box” and more of an “art” than a mystifying “science”. Diagrammatic approaches to modelling could help to make all of this more transparent. Of course, there are a lot of “coulds” in this paragraph. The development and use of technology can and should never be discussed in isolation form its political and organizational context. To a large extent, this political insight, was one of the main drivers and motivating forces for this paper.

 


[1] One intuitive way of thinking about this is that it would extend principles of “human centred manufacturing” into some of the more computational elements of the digital economy.

[2] See Christopher Olah’s blog entry for a helpful overview of various deep-learning architectures.

[3] For this reason, I will avoid any further discussion of convolution-based techniques and kernel methods, which have contributed, respectively, to rapid progress in image-classification and in applications of support-vector machines. An animated introduction to convolution-based techniques is provided by Cornellis (2018) while kernel-based techniques and the famous “kernel trick” deployed in support vector machines is lucidly described in Wright (2018). Rectified Linear Units or ReLU’s—the activation functions most commonly-used in deep learning neural networks—are examined in Brownlee (2019).

[4] The importance of symmetries in mathematical physics is examined in a recent paper by John Baez (2020), who investigates the source of symmetries in relation to Noether’s theorem.

[5] Some of these components of fragility, such as loss of diversification and deferment of breakeven times, would obviously be hard to capture in a highly aggregative macroeconomic model, but certain proxies could be constructed to this end.

[6] Of course, the rate at which labour—dead and living—is pulled out of production, also determines intra- and inter-sectoral economic performance, growth in trade, and overall rates of accumulation. It is also one of the key drivers of fundamental uncertainty for investors.

[7] See Stiglitz (2018) for a critical review of DSGE models, and Andrle and Solmaz (2017) for an empirical analysis of the business cycle, which raises doubts about the dynamic assumptions implied by a variety of macroeconomic models. The contribution of non-discretionary expenditure to instability in the business cycle has been highlighted by the recent Post Keynesian theoretical literature on the so-called “Sraffa super-multiplier” (Fiebiger, 2017; Fiebiger and Lavoie, 2017).

[8] Important sources of hysteresis, additional to those of a Minskyian nature, include those associated with rising unemployment, with its obvious impacts on physical and mental health, crime rates, and scarring in the eyes of prospective employers. Rates of innovation (and thus, productivity growth) are also adversely affected by declining levels of aggregate demand.

[9] The implementation function takes the vector of parameters and inputs and transforms them into outputs, while the request function takes parameters, inputs and outputs and emits a new set of inputs, whereas the update function takes parameters, inputs and outputs and transforms them into a new set of parameter values. Together, the update and request functions perform gradient descent with the request function passing back the inverted value of the gradient of total error with respect to the input. Each parameter is updated so that it moves a given step-size in the direction that most reduces the specified total error function

[10] For an introduction to some of the mathematical and programming-based techniques required for working with optics see Loregian (2019), Boisseau and Gibbons (2018), Culbertson and Kurtz (2013), and Román (2019).

[11] Software suites such as AlgebraicJulia and Statebox can already recognise the role of different types of string diagrams in representing networks, dynamical systems, and (in the latter case) commercial processes and transactions.

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Semantic Technologies for Disaster Management: Network Models and Methods of Diagrammatic Reasoning

Abstract:

The Chapter will provide a brief and informal introduction to diagrammatic reasoning (DR) and network modelling (NM) using string diagrams, which can be shown to possess the same degree of rigor as symbolic algebra, while achieving greater abbreviative power (and  pedagogical insight) than more conventional techniques of diagram-chasing. This review of the research literature will set the context for a detailed examination of two case-studies of semantic technologies which have been applied to the management of emergency services and search-and-rescue operations. The next section of the Chapter will consider the implications of contemporary and closely related developments in software engineering for disaster management. Conclusions will follow.

Introduction

This Chapter is concerned with developments in applied mathematics and theoretical computing that can provide a formal and technical support for practices of disaster management. To this end it will draw on recent developments in applied category theory , which inform semantic technologies. In the interests of brevity, it will be obliged to eschew formal exposition of these techniques, but to this end, comprehensive references will be provided. The justification for what might at first seem to be an unduly narrow focus, is that applied category theory facilitates translation between different mathematical, computational and scientific domains.

For its part, Semantic Technology (ST) can be loosely conceived as an approach treating the World-Wide-Web as a “giant global graph”, so that valuable and timely information can be extracted from it using rich structured-query languages and extended description logics. These query languages must be congruent with pertinent (organizational, application, and database) ontologies so that the extracted information can be converted into intelligence. Significantly, database instances can extend beyond relational or graph databases, to include Boolean matrices, relational data embedded within the category of linear relations, and that pertaining to systems of differential equations in finite vector space, or even quantum tensor networks within a finite Hilbert space.

More specifically, this chapter will introduce the formalism of string diagrams, which were initially derived from the work of the mathematical physicists, Roger Penrose (1971) and Richard Feynman (1948). However, this diagrammatic approach has since been extended and re-interpreted  by category theorists such as Andre Joyal and Roy Street (1988, 1991). For example, Feynman diagrams can be viewed as morphisms in the category Hilb of Hilbert spaces and bounded linear operators (Westrich, 2006, fn. 3: 8), while Baez and Lauda (2009) interpret them as “a notation for intertwining operators between positive-energy representations of the Poincaré group”. Penrose diagrams can be viewed as a representation of operations within a tensor category.

Joyal and Street have demonstrated that when these string diagrams are manipulated in accordance with certain axioms—the latter taking the form of a set of equivalence relations established between related pairs of diagrams—the movements from one diagram to another can be shown to reproduce the algebraic steps of a non-diagrammatic proof. Furthermore, they can be shown to possess a greater degree of abbreviative power. This renders an approach using string diagrams extremely useful for teaching, experimentation, and exposition.

In addition to these conceptual and pedagogical advantages, however, there are additional implementation advantages associated with string diagrams including: (i) those of compositionality and layering (e.g. in Willems’s 2007  behavioural approach to systems theory, complex systems can be construed as the composites of smaller and simpler building blocks, which are then linked together in accordance with certain coherence conditions); (ii) a capacity for direct translation into functional programming (and thus, into propositions within a linear or resource-using logic); and, (iii) the potential for the subsequent application of software design and verification tools. It should be appreciated that these formal attributes will become increasingly important as the correlative features of what some have described as the digital economy.

This chapter will consider the specific role of string diagrams in the development and deployment of semantic technologies, which in turn have been developed for applications of relevance to disaster management practices. Techniques based on string diagrams have been developed to encompass a wide variety of dynamic systems and application domains, such as Petri nets, the π-calculus, and Bigraphs (Milner, 2009), Bayesian networks (Kissinger & Uijlen, 2017), thermodynamic networks (Baez and Pollard, 2017), and quantum tensor networks (Biamonte & Bergholm, 2017), as well as reaction-diffusion systems (Baez and Biamonte, 2012). Furthermore, they have the capacity to encompass graphical forms of linear algebra (Sobociński, Blog), universal algebras (Baez, 2006), and signal flow graphs (Bonchi, Sobociński and Zanasi (2014, 2015), along with computational logics based on linear logic and graph rewriting (on this see Mellies, 2018; and Fong and Spivak, 2018, for additional references).

1.  Applied Category Theory

Category theory and topos theory have taken over large swathes in the field of formal or theoretical computation, because categories serve to link together the structures found in algebraic topology, and with the logical connectives and inferences to be found in formal logic, as well as with recursive processes and other operations in computation. The following diagram taken from Baez and Stay (2011), highlights this capability.

John Bell (1988: 236) succinctly explains why it is that category theory also possesses enormous ormous powers of generalization:

A category may be said to bear the same relation to abstract algebra as does the latter to elementary algebra. Elementary algebra results from the replacement of constant quantities (i.e. numbers) by variables, keeping the operations on these quantities fixed. Abstract algebra, in its turn, carries this a stage further by allowing the operations to vary while ensuring that the resulting mathematical structures (groups, rings, etc) remain of a prescribed kind. Finally, category theory allows even the kind of structure to vary: it is concerned with structure in general.

Category theory can also be interpreted as a universal approach to the analysis of process, across various domains including: (a) mathematic practice (theorem proving); (b) physical systems (their evolution and measurement); (c) computing (data types and programs); (d) chemistry (chemicals and reactions); (e) finance (currencies and various transactions); (f) engineering (flows of materials and production).

This way of thinking about processes now serves as a unifying interdisciplinary framework that researchers within business and the social sciences have also taken up. Alternative approaches to those predicated on optimizing behaviour on the part of individual economic agents include the work evolutionary economists and those in the business world who are obliged to work with computational systems designed for the operational management of commercial systems. However, these techniques are also grounded in conceptions of process

Another way of thinking about dynamic processes is in terms of circuit diagrams, which can represent displacement, flow, momentum and effort—phenomenon modelled by the Hamiltonians and Lagrangians of Classical Mechanics. It can be appreciated that key features of economic systems are also amenable to diagrammatic representations of this kind, including asset pricing based on notion of arbitrage, a concept initially formalized by Augustin Cournot in 1838. Cournot’s analysis arbitrage conditions is grounded in Kirchoff voltage law (Ellerman, 1984). The analogs of displacement, flow, momentum and effort are depicted below for a wide range of disciplines.

Applied Category Theory: in the US, contemporary developments in applied category theory (ACT) have been spurred along and supported by a raft of EU, DARPA and ONR Grants. A key resource on ACT is Fong and Spivak’s (2018) downloadable text on compositionality. This publication explores the relationship between wiring diagrams or string diagrams and a wide variety of mathematical and categorical constructs, including as a means for representing symmetric monoidal preorders, signal flow graphs, along with functorial translation between signal flow graphs and matrices and other aspects of functorial semantics, graphical linear algebra, hypergraph categories and operads, applied to electric circuits and network compositionality. Topos theory is introduced to characterise the logic of system behaviour on the basis of indexed sets, glueings, and sheaf conditions for every open cover.

2. Diagrammatic Reasoning

Authors such as Sáenz-Ludlow and Kadunz (2015), Shin (1995), Sowa (2000), and Stjernfelt (2007), who have published research on knowledge representation and diagrammatic approaches to reasoning, tend to work within a philosophical trajectory that stretches from F. W. Schelling and C. S. Peirce, through to E. Husserl and A. N. Whitehead, then on to M. Merleau-Ponty and T. Adorno. Where Kant and Hegel privileged symbolic reasoning over the iconic or diagrammatic, Peirce, Whitehead, and Merleau-Ponty followed the lead of Schelling for whom ‘aesthetics trumps epistemology’! It is, in fact, this shared philosophical allegiance that not only links diagrammatic research to the semantic (or embodied) cognition movement (Stjernfeld himself refers to the embodied cognition theorists Eleanor Rosch, George Lakoff, Mark Johnson, Leonard Talmy, Mark Turner, and Gilles Fauconnier), but also to those researchers who have focused on issues of educational equity in the teaching of mathematics and computer science, including Ethnomathematics and critical work on ‘Orientalism’ specialized to emphasize a purported division between the ‘West and the Rest’ in regard to mathematical and computational thought and practice.

As such, insights from this research carry over to questions of ethnic ‘marginalization’ or ‘positioning’ in the mathematical sciences (see the papers reproduced in Forgasz and Rivera, eds., 2012 and Herbel-Eisenmann et al., 2012). In a nutshell, diagrammatic reasoning is sensitive to both context and positioning and, thus, is closely allied to this critical axis of mathematics education.

The following illustration of the elements and flows associated with diagrammatic forms of reasoning comes from Michael Hoffman’s (2011) explication of the concept first outlined by the American philosopher and logician, Charles Sanders Peirce.

The above Figure depicts three stages in the process of diagrammatic reasoning: (i) constructing a diagram as a consistent representation of key relations; (ii) analysing a problem on the basis of this representation; and (iii) experimenting with the diagram and then observing the results. Consistency is ensured in two ways. First, the researcher or research team develop an ontology specifying elements of the problem and the relations holding between these elements, along with pertinent rules of operation. Second, language is specified in terms of both syntactical and semantic properties. Furthermore, in association with this language, a rigorous axiomatic system is specified, which both constrains and enables any pertinent diagrammatic transformations.

3a. Case-Study One:

A 2010 paper by SAP Professors, Paulheim and Probst reviews an application of STs to the management and coordination of emergency services in the Darmstadt region of Germany. The aim of the following diagram, reproduced from their work, is to highlight the fact that, from a computational perspective, the integrative effort of STs can apply to different organizational levels: that of the common user interface, shared business logics and that of data sources.

In their software engineering application, the upper-level ontology DOLCE is deployed to link a core domain ontology together with a user-interface interaction ontology. In turn, each of these ontologies draws on inputs from an ontology on deployment regulations and various application ontologies. Improved search capabilities across this hierarchy of computational ontologies, are achieved through the adoption of the ONTOBROKER and F-Logic systems.

3b. Case-study Two:

An important contribution to the field of network modelling has come from the DARPA-funded CASCADE Project (Complex Adaptive System Composition and Design Environment), which has invested in long-term research into the “system-of-systems” perspective (see John Baez’s extended discussion of this project on his Azimuth blog). This research has been influenced by Willems’s (2007) behavioural approach to systems, which in turn, is based on the notion that large and complex systems can be built up from simple building blocks.

Baez et al. (2020) introduce ‘network models’ to encode different ways of combining networks both through overlaying one model on top of another and by setting each model side by side. In this way, complex networks can be constructed using simple networks as components. Vertices in the network represent fixed or moving agents, while edges represent communication channels.

The components of their networks are constructed using coloured operads, which include vertices representing entities of various types and edges representing the relationships between these entities. Each network model gives rise to a typed operad with an associated canonical algebra, whose operations represent ways of assembling a more complex network from smaller parts. The various different ways to compose these operations characterize a more general notion of an operation, which must be complemented by ways of permuting the arguments of an operation a process yielding a permutation group of inputs and outputs).

In research conducted under the auspices of the CASCADE Project, Baez, Foley, Moeller, and Pollard (2020) have worked out how to combine two formalisms. First, there are Petri nets, commonoly used as an alternative to process algebras as a foralism for business process management. The vertices in a Petri net represent collections of different types of entities (species) with morphisms between them used to describe processes (transitions) that can be carried out by combining various sets of entities (conceived as resources or inputs into a transition node or process of production) together to make new sets of entities (concived as outputs or vertices are positioned after the relevant transition node). The stocks of each type of entity that is available is enumerated as a ‘marking’ specific to each type or colour together with the set of outputs that can be produced by activated the said transition.

Second, there are network models, which describe processes that a given collection of agents (say, cars, boats, people, planes in a search-and-rescue operation) can carry out. However, in this kind of network, while each type of object or vertex can move around within a delineated space, they are not allowed to turn into other types of agent or object.

In these networks, morphisms are functors (generalised functions) which describe everything that can be done with a specific collection of agents. The following Figure depicts this kind of operational network in an informal manner, where icons represent helicopters, boats, victims floating in the sea, and transmission towers with communication thresholds.

By combining Petri nets with an underlying network model resource-using operations can be defined. For example, a helicopter may be able to drop supplies gathered from different depots and packaged into pallets, onto the deck of a sinking ship or to a remote village cut off by an earthquake or flood.

The formal mechanism for combining a network model with a Petri net relies on treating  different type of entities as catalysts, in the sense that the relevant species are neither increased nor decreased in number by any given transition. The derived category is symmetric monoidal and possesses a tensor product (representing processes for each catalyst that occur side-by-side), a coproduct (or disjoint union of amounts of each catalyst present), and within each subcategory of a particular catalyst, an internal tensor product describes how one process can follow another while reusing the pertinent catalysts.

The following diagram taken from Baez et al. (2020), illustrates the overlaying process which enables more complex networks to be constructed from simpler components. The use of the Grothendieck construction in this research ensures that when two or more diagrams are overlayed there will be no ‘double-counting’ of edges and vertices. When components are ‘tensored’ each of the relevant blocks would be juxtaposed “side-by-side”.

Each network model is characterized by a “plug-and-play” feature based on an algebraic component called an operad. The operad serves as the construct for a canonical algebra, whose operations are ways of assembling a network of the given kind from smaller parts. This canonical algebra, in turn, accommodates a set of types, a set of operations, ways to compose these operations to arrive at more general operations, and ways to permute an operation’s arguments (i.e. via a permutation group), along with a set of relevant distance constraints (e.g. pertinent communication thresholds for each type of entity) .

One of Baez’s co-authors, John Foley, works for Metron, Inc., VA, a company which specializes in applying the advanced mathematics of network models to such phenomena as “search-and-rescue” operations, the detection of network incursions, and sports analytics. Their 2017 paper mentions a number of formalisms that have relevance to “search-and-rescue” applications, especially the ability to distinguish between different communication channels (different radio frequencies and capacities) and vertices (e.g. planes, boats, walkers, individuals in need of rescue etc.) and the capacity to impose distance constraints over those agents who may fall outside the reach of communication networks.

In related research paper, Schultz, Spivak, Vasilakopoulou, Wisnesky (2016) argue thay dynamical systems can be gainfully thought of as ‘machines’ with inputs and outputs, carrying some sort of signal that occurs through some notion of time”. Special cases of this general approach include discrete, continuous, and hybrid dynamical systems. The authors deploy lax functors out of monoidal categories, which provide them with a language of compositionality. As with Baez and his co-authors, Schultz et al. (2016) draw on an operadic construct so as to understand systems that result from an “arbitrary interconnection of component subsystems”. They also draw on the mathematics of sheaf theory, to flexibly capture the crucial notion of time. The resulting sheaf-theoretic perspective relates continuous- and discrete-time systems together via functors (a kind of generalized ‘function of functions’, which preserves structure). Their approach can also account for synchronized continuous time, in which each moment is assigned a specific phase within the unit interval.

4. Related Developments in Software Engineering

This section of the Chapter examines contemporary advances in software engineering that have implications for ‘system-of-sytems’ approaches to semantic technology. The work of the Statebox group at the University of Oxford and that of Evan Patterson, from Stanford University, who is also affiliated with researchers from the MIT company, Categorical Informatics, will be discussed to indicate where these new developments are likely to be moving in the near future. This will be supplemented by an informal overview of some recent innovations in functional programming, which have been informed by the notion of a derivative applied to an algorithmic step. These initiatives have the potential to transform software for machine-learning and the optimization of networks

The Statebox team based at Oxford University have developed a language for software engineering that uses diagrammatic representations of generalized Petri nets. In this context, transitions in the net are morphisms between data-flow objects represent terminating functional programming algorithms. In Statebox (integer and semi-integer) Petri nets are constructed with both positive and negative tokens to account for contracting. Negative tokens represent borrowing while positive tokens represent lending and, likewise, the taking of short and long positions in asset markets. This allows for the representation of smart contracts, conceived as separable nets. Nets are also endowed with interfaces that allow for channelled communications through user-defined addresses. Furthermore, guarded and timed nets, with side-effects (which are mapped to standard nets using the Grothendieck construction), offer greater expressive power in regard to the conditional behaviour affecting transitions (The Statebox Team, 2018).

Patterson (2017) begins his paper with a discussion of description logics (e.g. OWL, WC3), which he interprets as calculi for knowledge representation (KR). These logics, which are the actual substrates responsible for the World-Wide-Web (WWW), lie somewhere between propositional logic and first-order predicate logic possessing the capability to express the (∃,∧,T,=) fragment of first-order logic. Patterson highlights the trade-off that must be made between computational tractability and expressivity before introducing a third knowledge representation formalism that interpolates between description logic and ontology logs (see Spivak and Kent, 2012, for an the extensive description of ologs, which express key constructs from category theory, such as products and coproducts, pullbacks and pushforwards, and representations of recursive operations using diagrams labelled with concepts drawn from everyday conversation). Patterson (2017) calls this construct the relational ontology log, or relational olog, because it is based on, Rel, the category of sets and relations and, as such, draws on relational algebra, which is the (∃,∧, , T,⊥,=) fragment of first-order logic. He calls Spivak and Kent’s, 2012, version, a functional olog to avoid any confusion, because these are solely based on Set, the category of sets and functions. Relational ologs achieve their expressivity through categorical limits and colimits (products, pullbacks, pushforwards, and so forth

The advantages of Patterson’s framework are that functors allow instance data to be associated with a computational ontology in a mathematically precise way, by interpreting it as a relational or graph database, Boolean matrix, or category of linear relations. Moreover, relational ologs are, by default, typed, which he suggests can mitigate the maintainability challenges posed by the open world semantics of description logic.

String diagrams (often labelled Markov-Penrose diagramsby those working in the field of brain science imaging) are routinely deployed by data-scientists used to represent the structure of deep-learning convolution neural networks. However, string diagrams can also serve as a tool for representing the computational aspects of machine-learning.

For example, influenced by the program idioms of machine-learning, Ghica and Muroya (2017) have developed what they choose to call a ‘Dynamic Geometry of Interaction Machine’, which can be defined as a state transition system operating whose transitions not only account for ‘token passing’ but also for ‘graph rewriting’ (where the latter can be construed as a graph-based approach to the proving of mathematical hypotheses and theories). Their proposes system is supported by diagrammatic implementation based on the proof structures of the multiplicative and exponential fragment of linear logic (MELL). In Muroya, Cheung and Ghica (2017), this logical approach is complemented by a sound call-by-value lambda calculus inspired, in turn by Peircean notions of abductive inference. The resulting bimodal programming model operates in both: (a) direct mode, with new inputs provided, new outputs obtained; and, (b) learning mode, with special inputs applied for which outputs are known; to achieve optimal tuning of parameters to ensure desired outputs approach actual outputs. The authors contend that their holistic approach is superior to that of the TensorFlow software package developed for machine-learning, which they describe as a ‘shallow embedding’ of a domain specific language (DSL) into PYTHON” rather than a ‘stand-alone’ programming language.

Adopting a somewhat different approach, Cruttwell, Gallagher and MacAdam (2019) extend Plotkin’s differential programming framework, which is itself a generalization of differential neural computers, where arbitrary programs with control structures encode smooth functions also represented as programs. Within this generalized domain, the derivative can be directly applied to programs or to algorithmic steps and, furthermore, can be rendered entirely congruent with categorical approaches to Riemannian and Differential geometry such as Lawvere’s Synthetic Differential Geometry.

Cruttwell and his colleagues go on to observe that, when working in a simple neural network, back-propagation takes the derivative of the error function, then uses the chain rule to push errors backwards. They point out that, for convolution neural networks, the necessary procedure is less straightforward due to the presence of looping constructs.

In this context, the authors further note that attempts to work with the usual ‘if-then-else’ and ‘while’ commands can also be problematic. To overcome these problems associated with recursion, they deploy what have been called ‘join restriction tangent categories’, which express the requisite domain of definition and detect and achieve disjointness of domains, while expressing iteration using the join of disjoint domains (i.e. in technical terms, this is the trace of a coproduct in the idempotent splitting). The final mathematical construct they arrive at, is that of a differential join restriction category along with the associated join restriction functor which, they suggest, admits a coherent interpretation of differential programming.

It should be stressed that each of these category-theoretic initiatives to formalize the differential of an algorithmic step will become important in future efforts to develop improved, yet diagrammatically-based forms of software for machine learning that have greater capability and efficiency than existing software suites. The fact that both differential and integral categories can be provided with a coherent string diagram formalism (Lemay, 2017) provides a link back to the earlier discussion about the role of diagrammatic reasoning in semantic technologies.

It is clear that techniques of this kind could also be applied to a wide variety of network models (e.g. for the centralized and decentralized control of hybrid cyber-physical systems), where optimization routines may be required (including those for effective disaster management).

5. Conclusion

In conclusion, the innovations in software engineering described above, have obvious implications for those attempting to  develop new semantic technologies for the effective management of emergency services and search-and-rescue operations in the aftermath of a major disaster. Hopefully, the material surveyed in this Chapter should serve to highlight the advantages of a category-theoretic approach to the issue at hand, along with the specific benefits of adopting an approach that is grounded in the pedagogical, computational, and formal representational power of string-diagrams, especially within a networked computational  environment charactrised by Big Data, parallel processing, hybridity, and some degree of decentralized control.

While a Chapter of this kind cannot go into too much detail about the formalisms that have been discussed, it is to be hoped that enough pertinent references have been provided for those who would like to find out more about the mathematical detail. Of course, it is not always necessary to be a computer programmer both to understand and to effectively deploy powerful suites of purpose-built software. It is also to be hoped that diagrammatic reasoning may assist the interested reader in acquiring a deeper understanding of the requisite mathematical techniques.

Author: Professor Dr. James Juniper – Conjoint Academic, University of Newcastle; PhD in Economics, University of Adelaide

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Artificial Intelligence – An Avalanche of Business Opportunities

“Artificial intelligence is the future and the future is here.”
~ Dave Waters

AI or Artificial intelligence, today’s most innovative technology, is all about creating intelligent machines that do tasks usually done only by human intelligence. In simple words, it is the brainpower validated by machines and computers that are automated through codes to impersonate the natural intelligence demonstrated by human beings.

Not many of us know that Artificial intelligence is impacting our day-to-day life immensely. Yes! Have you ever wondered how your smartphone unlocks with your face ID or how social media feeds are personalized & how google gives recommendations when you search for a term on google search? You guessed it right. It’s AI!

AI is creating an avalanche of business possibilities today. It has different categories such as Mundane to Formal and also Expert tasks! Let’s look at some domains where Artificial Intelligence proves to be highly lucrative.

Travel, Tourism & Hospitality Industry

Personalization guarantees guest satisfaction. The travel & tourism industry and sectors like the hotel industry, airline industry, restaurant industry, and travel agents within it have adopted AI for several assistances, some of them are: 

  • Chatbots and Online Customer Service

AI chatbots offer a relevant response to the customers by understanding their queries & give them related information, just like a human does. But unlike humans, it is very prompt & can function 24/7 without breaks or pays yet it provides a pleasant experience to the guests.

  • Data Processing and Data Analysis

Apart from customer service AI is used in this sector to gather and interpret data about their customers. AI can also sort this data more rapidly and precisely than a human can, and that too without errors. 

  • Personalized Recommendations

AI is applied to offer personalized travel recommendations & options by using the data like the interests, budgets, and past search history of the customers. This helps the customers to effortlessly make their travel choices which in turn improves the profits of the company. 

  • Tracking and booking trips

AI-based booking apps track prices & recommend the customers the best times to book flights as well as make hotel reservations, by accurate prediction of prices, well in advance.

Fitness Industry

Yes, AI is revolutionizing the Fitness Industry in several ways and transforming home workouts into a smarter, better, and less expensive method to keep people’s health on track.

  • AI-Based Personal Trainers

People desire fitness but with their hectic schedules & time shortage, do not go to the gym. Also, hiring a personal trainer is not affordable at all. AI comes as a huge rescue for such people. AI-based fitness app provides the luxury of personalized trainers to guide & monitor the accuracy and the pace of the exercise, at any time and any place. 

  • Smart Wearables and Exercise Equipment

Wearables assist their users in tracking their fitness

activities, counting the calories burnt, detecting irregular heartbeats and signs of diabetes, etc. AI fortified exercise equipment when fed with some personal details, and offers recommendations to their users to exercise competently. 

  • Sales promotion

AI integrated fitness apps help fitness companies to find their prospective customers and collect & sort their data. Companies use this data to boost their sales and improve profits.

Healthcare Industry

AI plays a significant role in the Healthcare Industry by accomplishing tasks that are usually done by humans only, and that too faster, more precisely & cost-effectively than humans. 

  • Medical Diagnosis

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been synonymous with competence in the medical field. It has grown to become the second pair of eyes that never need to rest. AI-based medical diagnoses are automated & and can detect diseases like cancer even if the symptoms are not explicitly evident. Such diagnoses are mostly accurate.

  • Symptoms examination 

When patients mention their symptoms & health complaints in symptoms examining AI Chatbots, it uses its algorithm to precisely diagnose the disease. It also guides the patients toward appropriate health care.

  • Drug discovery and Development

This use of AI has been amassed in various sectors of humanity, especially in the pharmaceutical industry. AI help in discovering & designing new drugs and enhances R&D while speeding up the time and cutting off the extensive process involved in it. 

Logistics & Supply Chain Management 

AI has positively transformed the logistics and supply chain industry. It contributes a lot to reducing operating costs and is more efficient to use when it comes to responding to clients.

  • Accurate Inventory Management 

AI helps to prevent understocking and overstocking of inventory with its smart algorithms that can predict and determine consumer habits & seasonal demands.

  • Timely Delivery 

AI speeds up the warehouse processes by eliminating manual work, & operational shortcomings in the value chain. Thus, timely delivery goals can be smoothly accomplished. 

  • Warehouse Management 

AI manages warehouse security by tracking individuals who are entering and exiting the warehouse. Not just that it also tracks the goods in the warehouse with their barcodes and thus helps in keeping the inventory data updated. 

Marketing sector

  • Product recommendations 

AI recommends products & services to prospective customers based on their online search. AI understands & speculates people’s choices based on their behavior on the internet and recommends to them the products/services they are likely to purchase. More importantly, AI is effective in the Marketing Sector as speed is necessary. It empowers scalable growth, pushes profit, and customizes customer experience.

  • Dynamic pricing

AI automatically prices a product based on its demand & availability in an online market. This process needs no human intervention at all.

  • Targeting Ads

AI can be used to display ads to potential customers based on their relevant search on a search engine or social media. 

Cybersecurity Industry 

With increasing cyber-attacks & complications associated with them, the cybersecurity industry is applying AI in its operations to keep cyber threats at bay.

  • Threat exposure

AI-empowered security systems reveal the new trends hackers follow, worldwide as well as in a specific sector. This information can be used to make crucial decisions to protect against cyber danger. 

  • Phishing Detection

AI-based cybersecurity systems are capable of recognizing spam emails, determining if a website is genuine or fake and thus preventing phishing threats, breaches as well as data loss caused by malicious emails. 

  • Biometric Authentication

Biometric systems with AI make very precise and fail-proof verification with Face Recognition, Voice Recognition, Fingerprint Recognition, etc. 

Retail Industry

Just like the online marketplace, the retail industry also prefers the usage of AI for boosting sales and enhancing customer experience. AI supports retail systems to work together and enhance customer experiences, managing inventory, forecasting, and more.  

  • Smart Product Searches

Artificial intelligence simplifies product search for customers by allowing them to click a picture of any product online or offline and letting them search for the retailer who sells over the internet.

  • Personalization and Customer Insights 

Consumers can enjoy a personalized shopping experience with AI-based technology. It makes use of face recognition to spot a customer who is revisiting a shop and recommends products based on their preferences. 

  • Better In-Store Experience

AI-built system can cut down the operational cost of any retail store by taking away the need for a salesperson & a cashier, thus eliminating queues too. It also helps to monitor stocks & restock them instantly. 

In conclusion, AI has the power to improve the output and profits of any business. And so, companies are dynamically searching for new ventures to make the best of AI. Companies must create AI usage ideas for any specific sector to generate promising AI business opportunities. 

Can Content Automation Do Better Marketing?

“Technology, through automation and artificial intelligence, is definitely one of the most disruptive sources.” – Alain Dehaze

In the past, converting content into a marketing material was so tricky. It consumed our time and the cost of using various writing utensils and printing services. Once we started surviving in the digital life where content is king, the marketing industry entered the digital world and digital publishing services became a great boon for content marketers in every sector, thanks to the technology that changed the scenario and revolutionized the way every marketing industry followed earlier.

The new lock: where is the key?
Currently, the scenario comes with new challenges. When it comes to content marketing, present online content marketers face new marketing and production challenges because of a plethora of content in the digital world. On the one hand, content marketing is one of the essential parts of any industry, but on the other hand, it has currently become a complicated process since the variety of content goes unlimited and the way how the content is consumed by people has become unimaginable.

A large amount of the content generated today is consumed in its digital form. Digital content publishing has gradually entered into every sector such as IT, entertainment, business, and education. The form of content has evolved as variety of formats in different platforms and has created complex production processes that need special workflows for the variety of content produced. Every step in production of digital content requires customization and careful examination to suit the output required by the marketers.

Content + Automation process = ?
Content marketers need to overcome these challenges with innovative tools and ideas if they want to rule the kingdom of content. Here, automation, an obvious answer for many of the problems currently faced by publishing houses and content marketing industry, comes as an ultimate problem solver which makes content production smooth, uncomplicated, fast and easy. Content automation supports digital marketing strategy which integrates big data, blockchain, artificial intelligence, and natural language in order to accelerate the process of both production and distribution.

For the past few years, the ship of content marketing has definitely steered in the direction of automation. Around 51% of digital companies have started using marketing automation, according to statistics. If information is reliable, relevant, insightful and actionable with a proven and powerful method, customers will be attracted to marketing strategies. Here, technology plays a major role in providing fruitful data to customers.

With one-stop automation services processing in the cloud, all the processes in publishing which can be automated are scripted to work on the infrastructure of cloud computing. Workflows are developed by lining up different types of processes in the expected flow. The platform is exclusively designed to carry out a variety of automated tasks – composition, transformation and enhancement based on tailor-made automated workflows. Irrespective of at what stage your content production lines currently, automation can be applied at any phase of production, either the entire process or adopting it progressively, platforms and features that can be tailored to suit the expected demands.

In fact, recent content market demands have necessitated the inclusion of elements in content like info graphics, images, and GIFs, and interactive elements like videos and games. The content we produce is to be enriched with dynamic indexing, metadata, and semantic empowerment. In the method of content production with automation, the content is empowered with all the strategies that need for effective marketing. With the support of automation in content production, content marketers are able to streamline and accelerate the entire workflow, from the initial draft to the final output that they need.

Benefits of content automation in marketing
Content automation with a set of technologies supports for automating manual processes in content marketing. Its key aim is to automate the process of production and distribution in every stage and to keep the content up-to-date without the support of human intervention. Here let’s study some of the most important benefits of content automation in marketing.

  • Content automation improves the credibility of your product or service with content marketing strategies and can make your brand trendy.
  • Technically, it helps put sales on autopilot, sharing content across multiple digital platforms and optimizing content with SEO techniques. Your brands can catch a good place on Google search engine.
  • It converts content into other formats such as translated versions, audio or graphics, proofreading content to solve spelling and grammar issues and publishing content with reminders and notifications
  • Content automation supports your branding pages to receive more visibility and makes your social media engagement following.
  • With content automation, you can manage the entire process of your content strategy since you can virtually track every possible statistics on your campaign.
  • With the support of content automation, you can have the chances of converting high-quality qualified leads into sales. Content automation drives sales on specific products or services, empowering you control the way you sell.

Content automation tools for marketing

Content automation tools for marketing make a task a little more painless.  Here are some effective tools that you would help you streamline marketing functions.

  • io: It helps you send messages to targeted customers for specific products in a customer-friendly way.
  • Constant Contact: It is an email-marketing automation tool that helps you take your marketing to the next level.
  • Marketo: It is a sort of marketing software that lets you drive revenue with lead management.
  • Dialog Tech: It can be highly useful when you focus on voice-based marketing automation.
  • Oracle Eloqua: It lets marketers plan automated as well as personalized campaigns.
  • Bizible: Bizible is a tool that supports you to close the gap between sales and marketing.
  • Bremy: It lets you configure a customized content marketing package of database publishing, email newsletters and video editing.
  • Genoo: It enhances the success of your marketing plans.

Conclusion
With delivering excellence of designs and formats, automation services have become a better platform for content marketers to motivate the community with new words. The content is not only described words but also an art with alluring designs giving a new shape to the world. With a new perspective of content, we can imagine a better world and make reading fun for aspiring readers. Start-ups are increasingly turning to marketing strategies with content automation. The more marketing functions become automated, the more the marketing teams can focus on marketing strategies and digital marketing campaigns.

Content marketing is essential for a company to executing any long-term marketing strategy, but it is difficult to identify the most effective working content. In this case, automation will provide the data to answer your questions and enhance your content marketing processes. With the support of automation, you may:

  • Identify cost-effective and customer-friendly channels and campaigns.
  • Find out how your content influences buyer behaviour, and helps to increase leads on a particular content marketing campaign.