Learn How Artificial Intelligence Improves Business Intelligence

AI (Artificial Intelligence) and BI (Business Intelligence) are both technical jargon that can be as confusing as a TikTok trend to a millennial.

Interestingly, they're being hailed as the latest dynamic duo in boosting business efficiency. Aside from the word "intelligence," which is common in the two terms, how do they create tangible results for a company? Understanding how AI business integration enhances business operations can provide deeper insights into their combined potential.

In this article, we're going to define business intelligence and artificial intelligence, their difference, the tangible impact they can have on a company industry where they're making real-life impacts, and we'll recommend a business intelligence and artificial intelligence tool that might be all you need to overtake your competitors.

Difference Between Artificial Intelligence and Business Intelligence

Artificial intelligence refers to computer systems that learn from past data and try to make human-like decisions. It is programmed to continuously learn from pre-fed data to form patterns that can help it make near-accurate predictions and business decisions. By leveraging AI data analysis, businesses can significantly improve the accuracy and relevance of these predictions, leading to more informed decision-making processes.

On the other hand, a business intelligence system collects and processes data in a clear and coherent format. Its job is to make disorganized data understandable. After this, data analysts make informed decisions based on the data it provides.

The main difference between artificial intelligence and business intelligence is the ability of AI tools to think, solve a problem, and make decisions based on data that is fed to them. While BI tools simply make raw data more understandable to whoever needs it.

In other words, BI focuses on providing answers to questions related to past performance, while AI makes future predictions based on data from the past. Meanwhile, business intelligence works with traditional data analysis approaches and gives large amounts of spreadsheet data as output. On the other hand, artificial intelligence works through deep learning and ML (Machine Learning) to give results in text, numbers, sequences or any format you prefer.

Moreover, the data that an artificial intelligence tool needs to function can be obtained from internal or external sources. In contrast, the data needed for a business intelligence tool to function effectively can only be sourced internally. For businesses looking to leverage comprehensive data strategies, understanding the capabilities of an enterprise knowledge management system is crucial.

The Impact of the Fusion of AI and BI on a Business

By harnessing the strengths of both AI and BI, businesses can achieve unprecedented levels of efficiency, personalization, and agility, ultimately driving growth and a deeper understanding of market dynamics and customer behaviors.

Consistency in Decision-Making

Over 44 million Americans quit their jobs in 2023. [1] Now, imagine if one of your key data analyst executives was among them. Then you’d have to hire new people, take weeks to train them on the job and allow them to unmake the decisions made by the former employees and make their own unique decisions, all while hoping that they won't bail on you for one reason or the other.

However, by using artificial intelligence in business, you won't have to worry about that. When customized to fit your company's value, these combined tools will ensure that all decisions are made consistently with your company’s long-term and short-term goals.

Reducing Human Error

Human errors are often seen as the main reason for major accidents and disasters in industries. This is due to the fact that humans typically make at least three mistakes per hour, and this number can increase to as many as 15 mistakes per hour when they are under stress. [2]

One of the best ways to help reduce these human errors and the consequences that come with them is by substituting with as much machine power and intelligence as possible without completely erasing the human touch.

Therefore, AI in business can reduce human error due to the automation of repetitive and complex tasks. It can detect anomalies and alert the staff in charge of the potential dangers that could arise when certain decisions are made using data from the business intelligence tool.

Retention of Institutional Knowledge

Humans can forget, but machines don't, especially a tool like Atlas UP, which is programmed to keep track of the data and events that have taken place in your company. It always remembers the steps and processes that were involved in your previous deals, campaigns and collaborations, whether successful or failed.

That way, it can remind you when you’re taking similar steps that led to a failure in the past. When prompted, it can also suggest a variation of steps and strategies you can take to increase your chances of succeeding in your next business deal or collaboration.

Data Made Accessible to Non-Technical Users

A company cannot use the results from a business intelligence tool unless technical personnel like a data analyst review it to uncover insights. Mixing artificial intelligence in business will eliminate the need for any technical personnel to understand the output from the BI tool.

An artificial intelligence tool can do the work of a data analyst to review and interpret data, uncover actionable insights, analyze trends and patterns, discover anomalies and provide accurate recommendations that will align with your business's values and goals.

Enhanced Data Analysis and Insights

If a data analyst can come up with 100 insights from the results produced by a business intelligence tool, AI in a business tool can produce way more. In other words, more insights mean a better understanding of the data, leading to better-informed decision-making, the identification of more opportunities and risks, etc.

These will help your company to personalize and refine your strategies across different segments and inadvertently lead to better customer satisfaction and outcomes.

Predictive Analytics and Forecasting

With artificial intelligence in business, you can do more than convert raw data into a readable or understandable format. It provides predictive capabilities that enable business intelligence tools to take things a step further.

A combination of AI and BI can enable organizations to forecast future trends and outcomes with great precision. This will, in turn, help businesses anticipate customer behavior and buying patterns.

5 Industries Where AI and BI Can Have the Most Impact

According to the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS), there are over 74 industries, but the AI-BI combination has had the most impact on five of them.

1. Retail

There was a time when retail was simply about location, product, price and friendly employees. But it is now more than that.

Top retail companies like Amazon need data to help them make informed decisions on what products to advertise to which customers and what products are trending. Also, physical retail stores now need data to tell them what products to place strategically at each location within their stores.

They can only do this by using business artificial intelligence tools to analyze their customer data and correctly identify patterns and trends in their buying behavior.

This is where a tool that has the combined BI and AI abilities step in.

The tool can help them gather customer data from different platforms, convert this raw data into understandable formats and then use AI algorithms to produce customer preferences. This, in turn, can enable them to make personalized product recommendations and launch targeted marketing campaigns.

2. Finance

AI-powered business intelligence tools can help companies in the finance industry easily identify trends and product market movements, automate trading, and generally have more profitable investments. Such tools can also help finance companies facilitate cost-saving opportunities, thereby optimizing their financial performance.

It can also empower the financial industry to accurately detect fraud. It does this by analyzing transition patterns in real-time to give an alert when there are suspicious events that they've been customized to detect.

AI-powered business intelligence tools can also be used as chatbots and personalized financial advisors to market a product, educate customers, and enhance client satisfaction overall.

3. Healthcare

The healthcare sector is one industry where human error can have life-threatening consequences. We're talking about the 15 errors that occur per hour when an employee is stressed – which is the usual state of mind for medical professionals.

However, with the combination of artificial intelligence and business intelligence, the healthcare sector can reduce human error, assist medical professionals, and provide round-the-clock patient services.

Not only this, but AI-powered tools can also help improve the accuracy of diagnosis through image analysis and, of course, pattern recognition. This leads to easy and precise disease detection as predictive analysis will help forecast the outcome of a patient's symptoms and help recommend the best treatment plans.

AI-powered BI can also work as virtual assistants in the health sector; here, their job can be to improve patient engagement, streamline administrative risks and give general and even personalized medical advice.

4. Oil and Gas

Oil and natural gas make up 30% and 24% of the total global energy supply, respectively. [3] This means that there must be enough supply, low processing accidents, and low cost of production – all of which an AI-powered tool can facilitate.

Here's how: a business artificial intelligence tool can analyze geological data to identify potential drilling sites with high accuracy. This helps reduce high risk and cost during exploration. It can also use predictive analysis to help the oil and gas industry have an idea of when their equipment might fail. This, therefore, minimizes downtime and extends the life of the machinery.

Not only this, but AI-powered BI tools can also help harness reservoir modeling and optimization. This, in turn, helps improve production efficiency and increases oil and gas recovery.

5. Manufacturing

In the manufacturing industry, a business artificial intelligence tool can help analyze historical and real-time data to provide insights into customer trends. This helps manufacturers to quickly adjust production in time to join a market trend or even create customized products.

AI-powered business intelligence tools can also monitor the workings of manufacturing equipment to predict failure or maintenance routines. Therefore, this minimizes downtime and extends the lifespan of the machines. Also, artificial intelligence and business intelligence tools provide real-time visibility into supply chain operations. This helps manufacturers identify inefficiency, manage inventory, optimize logistics and increase customer satisfaction.

Let's not forget how AI and BI tools can help prioritize quality control and point out defect patterns, which will save the manufacturer time, money, and reputation.

Improve Your Company's Decision-Making Accuracy With Atlas UP

Alt text: The logo of Atlas UP.

Atlas UP is an AI-powered business intelligence tool that integrates with your company data to provide real-time insights into your business questions, including financial performance, human resources management, project management, etc. It acts as a shared workspace that connects data and people to ensure the best alignment of your company's value, strategies, execution process and results.

Other than this, our tool reduces the human error and time-wasting that comes from hiring data analysts to make sense of your data. It delivers answers to your technical questions in understandable formats. Hence, Atlas UP also helps you stay consistent in your decision-making process. That way, your company will move in the right direction even when there’s an employee overhaul.

More specifically, the Atlas UP tool can independently analyze data from any sources, including marketing campaigns, web and app analytics, and social media monitoring and come up with as many insights and pointers as you wish. You can also customize it to vet the insights provided by a data analyst. That way, you'll have more accurate and value-aligned insights that will have a positive impact on the growth of your business.

Interested? Contact us to understand what the Atlas UP tool can do for you.

Conclusion

Without artificial intelligence, business intelligence tools tend to provide limited insights into a company’s data. They also lack the ability to give predictive insights and don’t provide a metric to track decision-making processes. They also never point out human errors until it’s too late, and above all, you need technical personnel to make sense of the insights they provide.

While companies worked well enough when they were the only industry “tool” players, things have become easier, faster and more understandable with the integration of artificial intelligence with business intelligence tools.

Take the Atlas UP tool, for instance, it can:

• Curate data from different sources.
• Provide insights that are tailored to the company’s values.
• Improve on the insights provided by human employees.
• Suggest future business strategies based on these insights.
• Point out when a decision is not in accordance with the company’s policies and values.
• Reduce and point out human error that can have dangerous consequences, etc.

Schedule a call with us to understand how we can help you automate your business processes.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is business intelligence in artificial intelligence?

Business intelligence (BI) in artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the process of utilizing AI algorithms and techniques to analyze data and extract meaningful insights. These insights are used to support decision-making and improve the efficiency of business operations. AI-powered BI tools automate data analysis, generate predictions, and provide recommendations based on the processed information.

What is business artificial intelligence?

Business artificial intelligence (AI) is the application of AI technologies within business operations and processes to enhance efficiency, decision-making, and strategic outcomes. It involves using AI algorithms and tools to automate tasks, analyze data for insights, predict trends, and optimize various aspects of business operations.

How is AI transforming business intelligence?

AI is transforming business intelligence by improving how data is analyzed and used. AI algorithms can process and interpret a lot of data at high speed, uncovering patterns and trends that human analysts might miss. This capability brings about more accurate predictions and better decision-making, and it helps business owners identify new business opportunities. AI-powered BI tools also automate repetitive tasks, therefore allowing human analysts to focus on strategic initiatives and creative problem-solving.

What are the four types of business intelligence?

The four types of business intelligence (BI) include data collection, analysis, visualization, and decision-making. Data collection includes gathering information from different sources, and analysis, on the other hand, includes the use of statistical and machine-learning methods to extract insights and detect patterns from the data. Visualization presents these insights in a clear and understandable format through charts, graphs, and dashboards. In contrast, decision-making integrates these insights into strategic and operational decisions that help optimize business processes and outcomes.

How does artificial intelligence benefit businesses?

Artificial intelligence benefits businesses by enhancing operational efficiency through automating repetitive tasks and processes. It also enables more accurate and data-driven decision-making by analyzing large datasets and predicting trends. In addition to this, AI improves customer experiences through personalized interactions and recommendations, ultimately driving growth and competitive advantage for businesses.

What is the relationship between artificial intelligence and business intelligence?

The relationship between business intelligence and artificial intelligence (BI) is that AI augments BI by automating data analysis, uncovering deeper insights from complex datasets, and predicting future trends with greater accuracy. AI-powered BI tools enable businesses to make informed decisions faster, optimize operations, and innovate more effectively based on actionable intelligence derived from AI-driven analytics.