Как искусственный интеллект трансформирует бизнес: от автоматизации к стратегическому преимуществу

In 2024 we were all obsessed with talking to chatbots. It was a novelty – a fun way to waste a few hours. But times have changed, and in the last 2 years advancements in AI have gone beyond just a conversation.

Now, businesses are using AI to run their processes, finding different ways to implement and refine workflows. If you’re not up-to-date with the latest in AI, don’t panic! It doesn’t take all year to catch up and, in fact, there are a few easy changes you can make to your business to keep you ahead of the game. 

In this blog, we’ll go over how AI is changing the way businesses work, what your customers value and prioritise when looking where to shop, and how you can add AI into your business strategy.

Introducing AI agents

The biggest change this year alone is the death of the AI Assistant, and the birth of the Agent. Businesses aren’t just using AI, they’re being rebuilt by it. You’re no longer giving AI a task – you’re giving it a goal. If you missed it, check out our blog on ‘What is an AI agent?’ for a full breakdown. Here’s a quick summary…

An AI agent doesn’t need human input to tell it how to do a task. All you need to do is ask the agent to do the task, and it’ll work out the best way to do it on its own. You give it the reasoning, access to data, tools and memory, and it figures out how to do the task and understands when it’s done.

Although it might sound like a simple fix to get an AI agent to pick up the tasks you don’t want to do, it’s unfortunately not as straightforward as that. 

Once you’re set up and the AI agent is working on a task, you can sit back and relax. But a common mistake businesses make is thinking they can automate broken processes. The reality is, around 40% of agentic projects fail because they haven’t adapted their workflow for the AI workforce.

To make AI work for you, you first need to make sure your processes actually work. You can’t expect an agent to step in and solve all your problems. But you can ask AI for advice on how to organise your workflow, which is a good place to start if you’re really stuck.

Once you’ve got your processes in order, pick a task from your list that takes longer than 20 minutes to complete. This could be your first test for your AI agent. Once you feel comfortable handing over the reins, you can trial more and more processes, until you’re only left with the tasks you really want to work on.

The ‘Human Premium’

Handing over your workflow, or at least parts of it, to an AI agent may sound daunting. It also might seem like this means humans are obsolete. It’s actually the complete opposite. 

We’re now not only seeing a rise in the use of AI, but also the rise of ‘Human Premium’. Human trust has become the most expensive commodity. Reports suggest that over 90% of online info is AI-generated or assisted, so gaining the trust and confidence of your audience and customers is more important than ever before.

Off the back of this, the roles of sales assistants have shifted. If you’re just a cookie cutter, transactional salesperson, you’re gone. That’s a job AI can do easily and more efficiently, as hard as it is to hear. What customers prioritise more than anything is a ‘Relationship Architect’. You get to know your customers on a personal level, handle high-stake negotiations in a sensitive manner and build that human connection that can’t be replicated by AI. That’s what gives you value.

SEO is dead

As shocking as this might sound, SEO is on its way out. Today, AI overviews account for nearly 30% of all search results. Instead of a user clicking your link, the AI simply summarises your content, so they stay on the search page.

So, as a business, how do you survive?

Now the game is all about appearing in those AI summaries. The key to that is making sure you’re present in all the places AI is looking. One great example of this is Reddit. This super popular social media platform is full of opinions, which makes it the perfect resource for AI models to check for answers to specific questions. If you’re not already on Reddit, we suggest setting up an account.

Ironically, it also means that your website content is more important than ever and should focus on answering the questions your customers have. If the answers are clear on your site, AI will love presenting that to curious people, and your brand name will be right there alongside the answer and in the citations.

The infrastructure shift

Finally, let’s look at tech stacks. In 2024, we sent all our data to the cloud. What that actually meant was that we were sending all of our data to just a few companies – Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and OpenAI being the key few. Now, especially in Europe, recent geopolitical events have shown that this isn’t a good idea anymore.

This year, it’s all about digital sovereignty. Businesses value knowing where their data is kept, so many are moving it back to local servers. This helps them regain oversight, comply with the EU AI Act, and reduces the impact of geopolitical events impacting the stability of services.

Consider looking at where your data is kept, and how much this matters to you and your business.

What should AI do?

Business owners have moved from asking what AI can do, and now question what it should do. The competitive advantage this year isn’t about who has the fastest model. It’s about orchestration, and how you’re using AI to its fullest potential within your business workflow. It’s about how you manage your team of humans and agents working in sync.