How artificial intelligence helps small businesses

The evolution of artificial intelligence has led to the opening of unmanned convenience stores and self-service bank branches in China.

But AI also helps small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that work with lower budgets, which account for 97% of New Zealand businesses.

“Large companies can afford to invest in technology to maximize their efficiency, but SMEs can not use much in the market,” says Brendan Roberts, founder and CEO of Aider.

Roberts’ Artificial Intelligence software company has developed a digital assistant, Aider, that works alongside existing digital applications from a small business.

Westpac announced a partnership with Aider and offers its SME customers a free trial of three months.

“For example, if the SME leverages its accounting via Xero, uses Google Analytics, a point-of-sale system such as Kounta, and a list management tool such as Deputy, Aider integrates the software and reports it by conversational interaction,” Roberts said.

“People who work and run SMEs have so many hats to wear and this type of automation saves time. You can talk to Help via a voice assistant like Amazon’s Alexa or converse by text with it to view your data. You can ask Helping what your total expenses were last week or what were your best-selling products of the day, “he added.

Founder and CEO of Helping, Brendan Roberts

WORLD, one of Westpac’s SME customers, has been using Helping for two months to improve the efficiency of its fashion stores.

“We can see which stores or staff members are the busiest, which affects our membership,” said WORLD co-founder Benny Castles.

“Help will also tell me straight away:” This product sells well today “or” you should order more from this stock “, which means I do not have to spend three hours writing my own reports and consult data. ”

“As part of a small business, you can also be emotionally attached to your products. I had designed a dress that I felt very attached to, but after selling it on Instagram and selling it in stores, it just was not sold as well as others. Help was able to look at sales figures without emotion, tell us that he was not selling well and taking action in this regard, “added Castles.

Unlike Siri and other chatbots, who only respond to requests, Help proactively indicates what needs to be reviewed after analyzing the company’s data.

“We use our algorithms to look for patterns and changes, then Help will say,” Hey, you usually sell that amount and now you’ve lost this month, maybe you should look at that “or” hey, your feed Net cash is low, you should watch this, “says Roberts.

You can use Help to easily review your earnings and understand how you can do more. It helps you monitor your inventory and inventory to manage margins and people costs. Since its launch in late 2018, it has been very popular with hotels and retail businesses in Australasia.

Lewis Billinghurst, head of Westpac NZ’s Digital Ventures, acknowledges that the AI ​​is of great value to SMEs in an easy-to-use format.

“We have recommended Helping our small business customers in Westpac and offer them a free three-month trial because it’s a very effective tool to help small businesses grow,” said Billinghurst.

While Aid helps SMEs, other AI programs are helping New Zealand’s banking sector fight against fraud.

Alex Ferguson, senior intelligence officer for Westpac New Zealand, said the bank used AI primarily to detect credit card fraud.

“If a customer spends $ 40,000 on sneakers at four in the morning, the artificial intelligence will check his spending habits to see if it’s his normal behavior, which probably would not be the case in this case.

“We have proactive risk management programs in place for AI to detect certain types of suspicious behavior. This type of artificial intelligence has a much higher accuracy rate than a human because of the speed of data processing, “said Ferguson.

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