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ROLE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION

Article  in  International Journal of Advanced Science and Technology · January 2020

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 International Journal of Advanced Science and Technology
Vol. 29, No. 4s, (2020), pp. 392-400

ROLE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN BUSINESS

TRANSFORMATION

Dr. V.R. Palanivelu

Head and Professor, Department of Management Studies, Periyar University, Salem.

B. Vasanthi
Executive Secretary, Sona College of Technology, Salem

Abstract
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the fast growing fields which is getting more attention in business
world. Artificial Intelligence has already found application over many fields such as commercial and
daily life. The utilization of AI in business can make the industry to rely on faster, inexpensive and more
precise modes of marketing. Making use of this AI in marketing practices, an entrepreneur can benefit
higher response from the audience and can achieve a strong competitive besides other online brands.
Apart from marketing, it also has the ability to renovate business with innovative ideas. It also delivers
solution to complex tasks and thus helps in massive growth of business. Hence,in this work we will
discuss about the growth of business sector and entrepreneur using AI topology and its role in various
part of the business.
Keywords:Artificial Intelligence, Entrepreneur, Marketing.

1.Introduction
Artificial Intelligence is an increasingly popular term that lacks a unified, concrete definition. It is that
activity devoted to making machines intelligent, and intelligence is that quality that enables an entity to
function appropriately and with foresight in its environment. Technically speaking, Artificial intelligence
is an integration process in between cloud computing, network devices, robots, computer, and digital
content production and in various business processes, systems, and daily life operations. Artificial
intelligence computing was in past, today and will be in future. Embracing the increase and development
of Artificial Intelligence is crucial to future marketing efforts. Every day, companies are using artificial
intelligence software to optimize their own processes, reduce overhead, decrease turnaround time, and
improve output. Technology is evolving at an unprecedented rate, and teams already making the move to
marketing AI software are at a distinct advantage to jump on the next innovation.

2. Role of Artificial Intelligence in Business

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming more central to the day-to-day digital world, and the
marketing and advertising world is no exception. From sarcastic and brilliant Siri to Tessa’s self-driving
cars to Google AI that can learn video games in mere hours, Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing
industries one by one. The applications of Artificial Intelligence range from detecting trends in data to
mitigate market risks, enhancing customer service through virtual personal assistants, or even analysing
millions of documents across a company’s servers to find compliance failures. But it is only recently that
companies have been able to anticipate and envision the possibilities that Artificial Intelligence and
robotics can bring to the future of the business world. Artificial Intelligence leverages self-learning
systems by using tools like data mining, pattern recognition and natural language processing. So, in terms
of its key business advantages over human intelligence, Artificial Intelligence is highly scalable, resulting
in phenomenal cost savings. Besides, Artificial Intelligence’s consistency and rule-based programs allow
enterprises to minimize their errors. Its longevity, coupled with continuous improvements and its ability
to document processes, translates into rewarding business opportunities.The applications ofArtificial

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intelligence use technologies which includesnatural language processing, speech recognition,machine

learning, robotics,andcomputer vision. Thesetechnologiesprovide a number of opportunities forbusiness.
Machine learning is a methodto get artificialintelligence and deep learning is considered one of
thebranched of machine learning and a method forunderstanding machine learning. The major emphasis
ofdeep learning is on algorithms driven by the configuration and function performed by the humanbrain.
Like every other domain, marketing has alsobeen significantly influenced by the introduction of
newtechnologies and this effect will majorly grow in theupcoming years. It is evident that AI has boosted
theperformance of marketing in different ways. In nearfuture, it is expected that AI will boost the impact,
for e.g.Robots will be used as a substitute of salespeople,websites will be updated and reformatted
automatically by eye-tracking data. Undoubtedly, the research onmarketing will be shifted and become
insignificant asthe new trends in marketing will emerge due to the AI. The field of marketing is and will
be changingrapidly with the changes and advancement in AI. Thepace of this change will also transform
the overall landscape of marketing in academics, research, andbusiness context. This will be a major
challenge for theorganizations to transform according to the changinglandscape of marketing. The
companies will have totrain their employees constantly with the emergence ofnew technology. Working
with AI is not perceived asscience fiction but instead, it is viewed as a reality whichwill become a
necessity for survival. The employees ofmarketing have to understand and learn to enhance and match
their skills for AI and robots to be ready for thenear future. The present environment is very interesting
andchallenging. The paper will examine the impact of AIon business by taking the perspectives of
entrepreneurof Salem, Tamil Nadu.

3. Problem Statement
The Artificial intelligence (AI) has its applicationin different processes in business within
variousfunctional areas and business functions. One of them ismarketing, which is considered as the core
of thebusiness. The Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing thelandscape of marketing and will completely
transform innear future. Although marketing is the major businessapplications within AI today and early
adopters areattempting to create value from it (Bughinet al. (2017),the literature on this aspect are scarce
where both of thedisciplines are combined (Wierenga, 2010). Wierenga(2010) also pointed out there are
not a sufficientpublication for AI in marketing and marketing in AIliterature. According to Martínez-
López&Casillas(2013), it has been reported that Scopus had less than50 articles related to marketing and
AI in businessrelated journals. After that, the research related to thetopic in Scopus has increased but it is
still under 100.Martínez-López&Casillas (2013) stated that there is aneed of more studies that show the
impact of AI onmarketing considering that there is a scarcity of theresearch in the literature and the
potential of thecombination in making marketing decisions. Theresearch will be addressing this important
issue bytaking the perspective of marketing professional ofKarachi, Salem.

4. Research Objectives
The research is aimed to research the following
Objectives:
• To find out the impact of Artificial intelligence on business.
• To recommend solutions or strategies for theeffective use of AI technologies in business.
Research Questions
The research will be addressing the followingquestions:
1. What is the impact of Artificial intelligence on business?
2. What is the recommendation for the effective use ofAI technologies in business?
3. What are the different challenges in the use of AItechnologies in business?

5.Literature Review
As stated by DemisHassabis, who is thefounder of Deepmind – the AI Company of Google,“Artificial
intelligence is the art to make machinesintelligent (Ahmed, 2015).” It is the most widelyaccepted
definition and also a well-fitting since AI is abroader term used for a number of a variety ofindicators.

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Under the AI, there are some subcategoriesincluding machine learning and deep learning
whichmanufacture real-world apps of AI, including searchsuggestions, voice recognition, virtual
assistants andimage recognition.The term, AI, refers to the computer-assistedanalytical course that
attempts to form automatedsystems which can be labeled as intelligent. It is theautomated system that
inputs data to conduct tasks ofintelligent beings in a manner that increases thesuccess rate. According to
GuruduthBanavar,supervisor of AI research by IBM, there are a broadervariety of various types of
Artificial intelligence, therefore,it can be considered as a collection of technologies(Kaput, 2016). These
technologies have variousfunctions and come in a variety of prices, but the aim ofall of them is almost the
same which is to mimic humanintelligence in technologies to make the functionsintelligent.The
progressions made in AI and its executionsin various domains have resulted in the advancement ofAI
technologies that is evident to be valuable andbeneficial for marketing professionals. Since moreemphasis
is on digital marketing as compared to thetraditional methods of marketing, the ample data is therefor
usage of AI technologies. AI technologies have theability to help marketing managers in various
functionsincluding lead generation, market research, socialmedia controlling and customization of
consumerexperiences (Sterne, 2017). AI technologies in the fieldof marketing can be broadly classified to
customized AIsystems for the customized usage and to vendorprovided and software-as-a-service (SaaS)
solutionswhich includes AI aspects. Customized and real AItechnologies can be manufactured by the
internal AIdepartment of companies, outsource providers or it caneither be a mix of both. The various
vendor-providedsolutions of AI also need customization for personalusage cases (Sterne, 2017). A
majority of softwarehouses and providers has given a lot in AI andtechnology organization such as IBM
is giving their ownmarketing computerized solution with IBM WatsonCampaign Automation. IBM
Watson CampaignAutomation has AI by default which is built in thesolution.Salesforce, which is
considered as the leadingprovider of Customer Relationship Management (CRM)software has also begun
to provide AI service along withthe Salesforce Einstein, which is also executed in thesolution (Sterne,
2017). Paul Roetzer, who is the CEO ofMarketing Artificial Intelligence Institute, came up withthe
structure for AI in marketing which is commonlyknown as 5Ps of Marketing AI. The structure was
formedfor simplifying and visualizing the ground and it is in linewith the research carried out with
different AI companies and engineers on how marketing can take benefit fromAI (Roetzer, 2017).In
today’s world, AI is used to supportmarketing managers in various tasks and operationsincluding digital
marketing (buying), web development,SEO, external email marketing, lead generation, socialmedia
monitoring and A/B testing (Davenport, 2017)

6. Methodology
In order to conduct this research, the researcheradopted a qualitative research method.
Qualitativemethod is primarily exploratory research which isadapted to gain an understanding of the
reasons, perspectives, and opinions to solve the researchproblem. Since the objective of the research is
toinclude the perspective of the marketing professionals toknow about the impact of AI in marketing,
qualitativeresearch is the best choice. For data collection, theresearch is including primary as well as
secondarysources. The researcher collected primary data as a firsttime getting data to solve the research
problem and thisinformation was gathered from the interview method. Inaddition, different articles,
journals, books, websites andblogs are included as a secondary data source.The interviews are conducted
with themarketing professionals of the companies in Salem. Asample size of 10 participants was selected
and theinterviews were conducted from 20 entrepreneur of Salem, Tamilnadu. The researcher used
apurposive sampling method where the respondents areincluded in the research to serve a specific
purpose.The basic criteria to include respondent for the studywas that they must belong to the company
where AI isimplemented in the marketing function. The rationalebehind this was that the marketers who
are experiencingthe AI implementation would be able to provide a betterperspective on the impact of AI
on business.The interview method was used where theseries of open-ended questions prepared for
therespondents. However, the researcher was prepared toadd additional questions in the interview
depending onthe context in order to follow the inductive researchmethod, where there is no limitation of

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the existingtheories. The research is cross-sectional in nature,therefore; a duration of one month is

allocated to collectthe data from the respondents.

Fig 1.Categorization of Participants based on their Gender

Source :Primary Data
From the above figure, out of total sample, 60% were male entrepreneur and 40% werefemale
entrepreneur.From this analysis, it is concluded that female’s also showing interest towards an
entrepreneur.
These participants are entrepreneur in Salem. Among those, about 70% of people are accomplishing
in their respective business for more than 5 years and only 10% at start up stage and is revealed in fig 2.

Fig 2. Categorization of Participants based on their business experience

Source: Primary Data

Table 1.Categorization based on the Knowledge about AI

Introduction to AI No.of. respondents Percentage

Yes 10 50%
No 10 50%
Total 20 100%
Source :Primary Data

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From the survey analysis and from the table, it is concluded that only 5% percentage of the
participant experienced the usage of AI in their business. Hence, the further analysis of role of AI in
business were conducted on 10 respondents.
7.Data Analysis
In this section, the analysis from the collecteddata from the respondents of the research is
presented.The interviews included ten entrepreneurfrom ten different organizations of Salem.
Objective of this work is
 To find out the effectiveness of AI over business.
Ho: There exists no significant difference between pre and post AI marketing strategy in business.
Interview Analysis
This section provides a detailed analysis of theinterview. The major questions of the interview are stated
below that are analyzed in detail in this section:
− What are the influential factors in integrating AI inbusiness?
− What are the major benefits of integrating AI inmarketing?
− What are the major challenges of integrating AI inbusiness?
− What are the ethical aspects of integrating AI inbusiness?
− What are the uses of AI in the marketing functions ofyour company?
− What are the pre and post AI marketing strategy foryour company?
− What is the impact on expenditure of the company pre and post-AI ?

i. Influencing factors in integrating AI in business

Fig 3. Influencing factors in integrating AI in business

(Source :Primary Data)

According to the respondents (fig 3), the majorinfluencing factor in integrating AI in marketing is
acompetitive pressure (60%). Many companies feel thepressure from the competing firms to integrate AI
inmarketing. Management of the company has begun to push tointegrate AI in marketing and the media
attention,competitive pressure and digital maturity are thereasons of their inclination towards the
integration.The pressure fromthe competitors is the major factor as the company realized in order to
differentiate themselves from othercompeting firms; they have to integrate AI in theirbusiness
functions.The company knew that customers seek the firms with thebest offerings and performance and
thus, they felt theurge to integrate AI related software.

ii. Benefits of integrating AI in Marketing

When asked about the benefits of integrating AIin marketing, different responses were gathered
fromthe respondents. While integrating AI in marketing functions, about 30% of the companiesbelieved

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that AI would be helpful in increasing efficiencyand save time in the marketing functions and it is
nowevident that AI helped the company in improvedmarketing processes.It helped inimproving
conversion rates, a better understanding ofcustomer information and marketing decision morefeasible.
Most importantly, it helped in increasing the ROI. The insightsprovided by the AI-based software can be
used indifferent functions including pricing and new productdevelopment.The major advantage of
adopting AI-basedsoftware in marketing isthat through AI, the company is able to provide theenhanced
service and give more value to customerswhich lead to the maximum level of satisfaction from
thecustomers. Hence, 40% of companies adopted AI for marketing strategy formulation.Other benefits
include improved dataanalysis and effective handling of marketing processes, hence, 30% of companies
focused on AI for decision making.

Fig 4.Benefits of integrating AI in Marketing

(Source:Primary Data)

iii. A major challenge of AI integration in business

According to 70% of the respondents (fig 5), technical compatibility is considered as themajor
challenge in AI integration according to therespondents. When the companyworked on making it easy to
incorporate their systemwith the major CRM system in order to handle thecompatibility issue. It is still
the major challenge for companyand the company has been working on it continuously tomake the
process better.30% of respondents stated that the lack oftechnical skills in a team also posits the
greatestchallenge for overall functions after the AIintegration. Adoption of newtechnology in a company
is indeed a process of changeand it is highly important to understand the challengesbeforehand and handle
those challenges effectively. Thecompanies should not be reluctant in embracing newtechnology in order
to get a competitive advantage.Respondents also argued that it is important tohave data in place as it is the
most important part of AIthus, according to them, data is also the biggestchallenge.

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Fig 5.Challenge in integrating AI in business

(Source: Primary Data)

iv. Ethical Aspect of AI in business

According to the respondents, data is the majorethical aspect to take into account concerning
thecustomers. According to respondent, the decision regarding the choice of AI hasbecome too
complicated to understand, even for thedevelopment team. The may become the biggestchallenge if a
company does not consider the unethicalchoices made.

v.Usage of AI in marketing functions

According to the respondents, AI has made themarketing function more effective and it is used
inalmost all the important marketing functions. Theystated that AI helps in developing the sales
andmarketing strategies that drive substantial improvementsin business performance.AI has been used
inall activities which include pricing,promotion, distribution, and product planning anddevelopment. AI is
dominantlyused in the Digital platform, advertisement function, andcustomer relationship management.AI
is majorly used in Digitalmarketing which includes emailmarketing, digital advertising, web design,
Chatbots,and Predictive Analysis.
vi. Pre and post AI marketing strategy
Indeed, the execution of AI in marketing changethe dynamics of overall business. Similarly, it
alsochanges the strategies designed by the company.Before adopting AI inmarketing, the strategies were
focused to increasemarketing resources and extend product assortments.After the adaptation of AI, the
business intelligenceattracted the marketing managers and they got adeeper understanding related to the
marketing, salesand operation trends. From the data, they developed thepredictive models to notice the
future strategies.It helped inimproving responsiveness and efficiency. Moreover, thecompany is also
making future investment decisions ofAI. After theimplementation of AI, the company started focusing
onsocial media reach, personalization, collecting betterdata, SEO, payment processes and improvement
insales and all the strategies are focused towards themafter the adaptation of AI.

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Table 2. Hypothesis testing

Method N Mean SD SE 't' Level of Significant

Pre AI 10 16.6 3.82 Significant at 0.01

1.39 4.03
Post AI 10 22.2 1.67 level

The calculated 't' value 4.03 is significant at 0.01 level since it is more than Table Value of 2.878 for
df-18. Hence the hypothesis is rejected.
This indicates that there exists significant difference between the two methods adopted forbusiness.
From the table, it is concluded that the application of AI in business will enrich both marketing strategy as
well as profit of the business.
vii. Impact on marketing volume and expenditure ofthe company pre and post-AI
The adaptation of AI in business has indeedincreased the marketing expenditure of the companywhile
acquiring but it has significantly reduced themarketing cost.. After AI, it was easier toget the data to make
different marketing decisions. It notonly helped in reducing marketing cost but also helpedin achieving
the marketing objectives. After the adaptation of AI, it helpedin saving different cost and thus, improved
theefficiencies and reaching the marketing objectives.It has made tasks easier and helped insaving
significant marketing cost. In addition, it helpedin providing a clear direction for the future of
marketingand overall sales of the company.
8. Conclusion and Recommendations
The aim of the paper was to find out the impactof AI on business by including the perspective
ofentrepreneur of Salem. In order to reachthe objective of the research and to answer the
researchquestions, different steps were followed. At first, acomprehensive literature review was
highlighted whicha detailed understanding of AI and the use ofAI in business by including the perspective
of differentresearchers. Secondly, the researcher used thequalitative research method which involved
semistructuredinterviews with ten different entrepreneurbelonging from ten different firms ofSalem.The
major findings of the research showed thatthe major influencing factors in integrating AI inbusiness area,
competitive pressure, media attention,digital maturity, and customers. On the findings relatedto the
benefits of integrating AI in marketing, differentresponses were gathered from the respondents. Themajor
benefits according to the marketing professionalsare increasing efficiency, time-saving in the
marketingfunctions, improving conversion rates, a betterunderstanding of customer information,
makingdecision more feasible, increasing the ROI,insights, enhanced service and customer
satisfaction.The technical compatibility isconsidered as the major challenge in AI integrationaccording to
the respondents. Respondents alsoargued that it is important to have data in place as it isthe most
important part of AI thus, according to them,data is also the biggest challenge. According to
therespondents, data is the major ethical aspect to takeinto account concerning the customers. On the
questionrelated to the usage of AI in the company, respondents stated that AI has made the business more
effective. They stated that AI helps in developing the sales and marketing strategies that drive substantial
improvements in business performance. The above findings highlight the importance of AI in the
businesses. In addition, major challenges, ethical aspects, and usages provided a guideline to the
companies to adopt AI in business. It is recommended to the firms to follow the aspects and challenges
while integrating AI in business.

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