The Most Important AI Business Applications for 2022

Artificial intelligence is changing the world more each year, especially in business. AI applications have led to higher productivity, improved customer experiences, safer IT operations and much more. Despite some controversy, AI has even made progress in recruiting in recent years. 

Where is AI heading next in 2022? Businesses will see several applications at the forefront of discussion and implementation in the year ahead. While some have been rising steadily, others are at the absolute cutting edge of AI development. 

1. Recruiting

Recruiting was one of the earliest AI applications for businesses, but it has come under scrutiny due to the issue of data bias. When AI algorithms are developed, they are trained by processing mass quantities of information in line with their intended purpose. If someone wanted to create an AI that could recognize photos of cars, it would need to learn how to identify a vehicle by processing thousands of photos. 

Some recruiting AI has demonstrated data bias, showing discrimination based on factors like gender and race. er and race. However, since this discovery went viral, new developments have made recruiting a viable application once again. Explainable AI allows developers and users to inspect how it makes its decisions, allowing discrimination to be identified and eliminated. 

2. Cybersecurity

Every business should prioritize cybersecurity in 2022. Cybercrime has been increasing since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, especially phishing and malware attacks. Remote work plays a key role in the surge in cyberattacks since IT departments are stretched thinner and employees lack the safety of an office firewall. 

Luckily, AI can help businesses ramp up their cybersecurity measures even with the added complexity of remote work. AI can detect malicious content with much greater speed and accuracy than humans. It can also help prevent bots from taking over user accounts or compromising data. Additionally, predictive intelligence makes AI invaluable for future-proofing cybersecurity measures. 

3. Customer Service

Businesses can go well beyond rudimentary chatbots for customer service in 2022. Thanks to advancements in natural language processing (NLP) as well as machine learning, AI is becoming a mainstream asset for businesses’ customer service models. 

Studies by industry leaders have found that the two biggest challenges facing contact centers today are managing agents and handling high inbound call volumes. AI is perfect for addressing both of these issues. Today’s customer service AI models can have legitimate discussions with customers, going well beyond the preprogrammed responses seen in chatbots. NLP and machine learning allows AI to reproduce realistic speech patterns, creating a more authentic experience for customers. 

4. Quality Control

AI is becoming increasingly popular for use in quality assurance. This is occurring on numerous fronts, with potential for a wide range of business applications. Computer vision, also known as machine vision, allows AI to process images, analyze their content and make conclusions based on what is “seen.” This technology is powering AI quality control, as well as several other exciting applications, including self-driving cars and even language translation. 

Businesses can utilize AI for quality control in several ways. For example, manufacturers can transmit footage from a production line to a quality control AI that can rapidly analyze units. This leads to faster, more accurate quality assurance and overall higher productivity. The same process could be applied to various quality checks with computer vision — essentially, anything that can be analyzed in a photo. 

5. Overcoming Language Barriers

The internet has vastly expanded the reach of businesses large and small alike. With that growth in range inevitably comes the issue of language barriers. This does not exclusively apply to international corporations, either. Even domestic companies are likely to run into customers with different language skills, such as immigrants or people who utilize sign language. Despite language differences, AI can help businesses create lasting connections with these clients. 

Advancements in deep learning are among the most highly anticipated innovations in AI. This is driving progress in language models, which have applications in virtually every niche of AI implementation. These language model advancements will allow businesses to communicate with customers better, even across language barriers. Next-generation translation AI will be capable of understanding multiple languages and accurately replicating speech patterns for all of them. 

6. Optimizing Operations

AI is excellent at analyzing large quantities of data and drawing insights from patterns within it. Business operations can be intelligently optimized and streamlined using this core function of AI. Whether in design, monitoring, marketing or managing data, businesses can apply AI to improve efficiency and productivity. 

For example, an AI could track how a certain resource, such as printer paper, was being used within a business’s daily operations. The AI could then use this data to reveal where things were used inefficiently or underutilized. Similar insights could help companies pinpoint ways to improve their targeted marketing or outreach efforts. AI data analysis could even streamline budgets by predicting the exact amount of a material or resource a business will actually need. 

7. The Metaverse

In 2021, Facebook, now known as Meta, made headlines with a groundbreaking announcement about their plans for the “metaverse.” This virtual and augmented reality world is already in the making and has been for several years, with virtual reality headsets becoming ever more popular. Analysts are already predicting the exciting business potential of the metaverse.

More metaverse announcements and advancements are sure to come in 2022. Businesses can utilize the growing capabilities of VR technology with AI. For example, AI can allow companies to have multilingual VR communication with customers and offer consumers exciting VR experiences. AI will also be instrumental in the metaverse economy, where cryptocurrencies are anticipated to be mainstream. 

Collaborating With AI in 2022

AI becomes more important in business each year. Countless industry leaders are finding that the possibilities it holds are among history’s most valuable innovations. As AI technology continues to advance, these possibilities broaden even further. They may soon even have appearances and personalities, functioning like human employees. Businesses that invest in AI today will be part of the innovations of tomorrow.