Technology and business often shape each other, with innovation in one area creating a demand in the other. Some of the more modern technology trends in the industry, such as Big Data, AI, and robotics, can benefit companies of all sizes once the pros and cons are understood.
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Natural Language Processing and Generation
The development of natural language processing and generative AI has worked alongside the business sector to improve how customers search for products, find answers to questions and even access entertainment. Gone are the days when you had to use specifically worded questions to find products and information on the internet; these days, you can ask the question aloud to your digital assistant and have it read the top answers. With the growth of generative artificial intelligence, you can chat with a company, have all your questions answered, and never wait for an available representative.
Payment and Pricing Innovations
Not only has technology shaped the payment methods your company takes, but it has also shaped how you take and process payments. E-Commerce transactions can feature online wallets, payment plans, and secure customer portals for storing shipping and payment information. There are even third-party sites facilitating promo codes, discounts and price comparisons so your customers are sure to find the best deal available. New tech has even shaped how your customers pay for products at brick-and-mortar stores with tap-to-pay and pay with smartphone options available at most registers.
Omnichannel E-Commerce
You can advertise and provide links to your store through your website, social media platforms, and business partners. These channels have been developed to make shopping more convenient for customers. Integrating these into an omnichannel connection between your store and the customer is trending to make online shopping even more convenient.
Customer Journey Personalization
The journey your customers make from being interested through purchase and back to interest is often referred to as a sales funnel because your customer service representatives and advertisement campaigns guide clients along the journey with an increasingly narrow focus. For instance, your initial promotions will cast a large net and hopefully attract attention to multiple products and services simultaneously. When a customer is interested, he or she is guided further into the sales funnel with lists of features and discounts for the specific products of interest. With increased access to data and personal interest information for potential customers, your company can more successfully target interested customers and avoid overpaying for marketing campaigns.
Big Data and Analytics
Big Data and analytics have been trends in the business sector for years, with data analysts gathering, cleaning, and analyzing information from various online sources to aid in market predictions, advertisement design, and much more. With the latest innovations in AI, augmented analytics are quickly dominating the data analysis of companies of every size. By feeding your data into a machine learning algorithm, you can actively search for various questions, such as what type of content is most engaged with, online traffic patterns, and much more.
Training and the Workforce
Virtual or augmented reality technology is being used successfully in training personnel for all types of jobs. It is used in higher education to train surgeons, rocket scientists, and researchers. You can find online training modules for your employees to help them learn more quickly and effectively than peer training alone. Even the military has adapted virtual reality video gaming technology to train personnel for various situations.
Virtual training can be especially beneficial to companies with a largely remote or hybrid workforce because the modules can be done anytime through the employee portal. This means you can train someone in the next room with the same knowledge and modules as you in the next state.
As technology and business grow alongside each other and help shape one another, knowing which trending tech will benefit your company the most is essential. Innovations in machine learning, natural language processing and augmented reality are already making it easier for customers to shop, marketers to target the right audience, and retailers to train employees for complex tasks.
