Today’s top tech execs pick tomorrow’s top 3 business technologies

There seems to be a new technology developed every day. It’s important to keep up with the changing tech landscape to know what you should be using and what’s not worth your time or effort. Some tools can drastically impact your business for the better, and implementing these technologies will help you stay ahead of the game.

Technology trends in business

If you want to know what you should be adding to your company’s tech stack, take a look at these tips from the leading voices in tech regarding their business technology recommendations.

Artificial intelligence

Although this is a hot topic in the tech community, not everyone knows how to build it into their business. AI has many uses that can be applied to fix a number of problems. It can be used for data collection, content creation and even talking to customers. According to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, “AI is one of the most important things humanity is working on. It is more profound than… electricity or fire.”

A popular way to apply AI to your business is with a chatbot, which can emulate human conversation with customers and provide data insight. There are several advantages to utilizing this technology. For one, chatbots never need to sleep or take breaks, and so are available to customers 24/7. This can make a big difference when it comes to helping customers in different time zones or those who prefer to do their online shopping or work late at night, particularly when you’ve got limited resources and can’t afford to have round-the-clock human customer support agents. Thanks to chatbots, early birds and night owls alike can receive help when they need it. Chatbots can also be programmed to communicate in several different languages, which can streamline your business relationships with your international customers.

AI can also be extremely useful when it comes to collecting insights for businesses. This information can enable companies to enter new markets and reach new customers. These potential clients can be identified using data derived from their activities, interests and search histories. 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created every day; unfortunately, most of that data never helps solve any problems. Thanks to AI, businesses are finding new ways to utilize that data to increase the range and quality of their services.

The cloud

The eagerness of companies to transfer their processes to the cloud is an indication of the many benefits this technology could provide to your business. The cloud can help with every facet of a company, including two of the most crucial: security and data recovery.

To secure your business, the cloud provides one centralised system that is constantly monitored by a team via the vendor, which also provides threat detection services and effective patching. Data protection has improved as well. There are built-in backup systems in every modern cloud service that can help prevent disaster from happening or mitigate the rare disasters that slip through. The response rate and likelihood of issues being stopped and resolved quickly is much higher for cloud services than it would be for software running on your local machine. Oracle CEO Mark Hurd says, “security, which is one of the issues we’ve talked about, will actually flip from being a concern to being a benefit. The security implications in the cloud, particularly of the big enterprise providers, [mean that] you will be more secure there than you will be in the traditional on-prem world.”

From a collaboration perspective, it establishes a system where employees can share their work with one another smoothly. This ease of communication increases collaboration and has been said to raise productivity levels too. For example, Google’s G Suite gives businesses the opportunity to work within one centralized system that includes a calendar, a chat platform and shareable docs. This system enables employees to easily share their work, coordinate their schedules and organize their overall workflow.

Voice activation

Voice-activated technology has been part of our daily lives for some time, but it’s recently found its footing in the business realm as well. Voice recognition and activation can help to improve sales efforts, customer service and employee workflow. It’s truly a unique technology that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Voice-based technology can handle simple customer service questions and assist in issues that would otherwise take up valuable time on behalf of both the customer and the company. It’s capable of natural responses and can oftentimes find a solution faster than a human could. Search engines, particularly Google, are also collecting valuable data from the search queries users speak rather than type. The more natural language and phrasing used in spoken-word searches can provide context that helps create better semantic search algorithms and offer up more accurate results. When you ask Google a question out loud, you save time, and Google gets a little bit better at finding what you needed. It’s win-win.

It’s also becoming apparent that voice activation can help to boosting productivity and overall workflow. Employees can use their voices to add things to their calendars or quickly schedule a last-minute meeting. To-do lists can be edited and reminders can be set. Voice recognition tools are a little bit like having an assistant that’s always available and that knows the answers to your questions.

“In the next 5-10 years, it’s highly unlikely machine driven speech-to-text won’t surpass human transcription in both accuracy and speed, just given the current pace of development,” says Daria Evdokimova, the co-founder of VoiceOps.

What’s next?

In the end, you’re the only one who knows what’s best for your business. But it’s important to consider all of these options to make sure you’re keeping up with the ever-changing world of business and tech. These three technologies, as well as other new advancements, can make a big impact when it comes to sales, efficiency and overall success.

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Sara Carter writes for Enlighted Digital – a digital magazine dedicated to the top tech and business news, updates and analyses from around the world.