AI insights will empower your brand to develop winning strategies

Every company wants a competitive edge and greater efficiency, but too many of the tools at your disposal are not delivering results. To identify the right data and cut through the noise you need evidence-based forecasting. Relying on gut feelings is risky. Nothing can compete with data-driven insights informed by human expertise. And for businesses coping with continuing disruption, artificial intelligence (AI) offers unparalleled opportunities to predict customer demand and anticipate emerging market trends.

“AI gives us better predictions at speed in a highly unpredictable environment,” says Kriti Sharma, VP of Product at global data and analytics firm GfK. “It helps us navigate uncertainty going forward and that’s an interesting mindset change for many businesses.”

AI decision-making, with models enriched by core company values and access to the most relevant data, will help you build a foundation for future success. Without predictive insights, there’s a real risk that you’re missing out on making the best possible decisions for your business.

Building trust in AI decision making

“If we want to fundamentally transform how businesses make decisions, we need to trust AI,” Sharma explains.

But placing trust in AI is a leap of faith for many organisations requiring courage at board level and culture change throughout the business. It takes careful planning to strike the right balance between AI insights and human expertise.

“It’s not as simple as hiring data scientists to build a model for success. AI decision-making must be grounded in company values,” says Sharma. “We build technology that lives and breathes the values of the business or service it provides.”

Where possible AI systems should be designed around people who can inject industry knowledge and expertise. When organisations are inclusive, the predictive insights they unlock are truly transformative.

Realising the promise of AI insights

AI insights reveal more of the road ahead, so companies can see trends as they emerge and pivot to take advantage. With an accurate picture of their true competition, businesses can hone products and services to better deliver what customers desire. Your deep domain knowledge together with AI that can pinpoint relevant data and patterns is a powerful combination.

“Companies want to know what drives consumers to do certain things,” explains Sharma. “Our clients are making the most important decisions they have to make, where they have the least confidence today based on our analytics and our predictions around consumer behaviours and trends. We are revealing what motivates people to purchase, how these patterns are changing, and how they differ across different parts of the world.”

GfK’s AI technology insights platform, gfknewron, reaches beyond internal expertise to dive deep into purchasing data and market trends that answer important questions about your customers. It reveals their motivations, innovations that genuinely matter to them, what triggers people to buy, and how purchases improve quality of life.

Human-centric AI insights enable companies to drill down to a granular level with specific questions about purchasing decisions. If there’s only one brand of monitor left on the shelf, for example, will people buy now or wait for their favourite brand to come back into stock? Will buyers delay a purchase to get a product in their favourite colour?

With gfknewron, businesses gain access to a continuous stream of rich market intelligence. Relevant insights that cut through the noise help businesses mould sales strategy, meet supply and demand, and identify innovations worth pursuing.

The future of AI in business

AI insights uncover new correlations and hidden connections. Predictive insights reveal that a customer who can’t go on holiday to Greece this year will choose to buy a smart vacuum cleaner instead, for example. Insights help companies look beyond how one camera compares to another to the complete story of a customer’s journey to find the right blend of innovative features, efficiency and price that defines their ideal camera and triggers that purchase.

“We are starting to predict human behaviour and human habits,” explains Sharma. “And combining that with how the markets function, how supply chains function, and how price and promotions factor into consumer decisions enables us to help clients develop winning strategies.”

As partnerships between people and AI evolve, they will push beyond the identification of trends and motivations to anticipate our needs. Forward-thinking companies will harness AI to drive the trends curve rather than react to it.

Watch the full interview to deep dive into the impact of AI on business results.