The tech industry is driven by hyperbole. It seems like practically every tech-adjacent business hypes their new product or service as the model that’s going to fundamentally change how our lives are lived. But when you hear that artificial intelligence is going to be revolutionary and transformative, you need to stand up and listen. A.I. is one of the fastest growing tech fields today, and it’s rapidly being folded into practically every business sector in the world. If your business doesn’t develop a strategy for handling artificial intelligence, it’s destined to fall behind the curve in the years to come.

Every sector has its own unique demands and challenges, and that means that how they adopt A.I. is going to be different. But there are two fundamental approaches to how a business handles artificial intelligence. A.I. is used to create more intelligent business processes and to create smarter services and products that can more effectively meet the needs of their customers.

In terms of processes, automation is the name of the game. It’s a philosophy that’s already been folded effectively into modern marketing strategies. The advanced algorithms and machine learning of A.I. allow it to work with customers on an individual level rather than deal with the effective but imprecise variable of demographics. By tracking consumer behaviors, A.I. can provide the type of targeted advertising that will ensure better conversion. But that’s just the start. Automated chatbots can answer customer questions 24/7 and become more sophisticated with each experience; A.I. can more effectively monitor manufacturing systems and predict the risk of accidents or defects, and it can monitor the online retail experience to detect fraud better.

Similar principles apply to artificial intelligence regarding products and services. Artificial intelligence algorithms can be seen in the way that Google and other social media platforms have offered sophisticated results to their customers and in the way that virtual assistants like Alexa and Siri grow to accommodate the needs of their owners. In more pragmatic terms, cars are smarter than they’ve ever been. Now ubiquitous features like parking assistance and incoming revolutions like autonomous vehicles are all the result of artificial intelligence.

The wonderful thing about technologies like artificial intelligence is how quickly they develop and trickle down to smaller businesses. While artificial intelligence may chiefly be the purview of larger businesses today, tools like automated marketing are already accessible to retailers and service companies of any size. Adopting an artificial intelligence strategy now could help your bottom line. Failing to do so could quickly leave you falling behind your competitors.