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Have you ever looked into a crystal ball and tried to predict your future? Science would say it’s impossible by ordinary means, but what if that crystal ball was a data store containing an abundance of unsorted information and all it needed to predict your future was a method to the madness. Unlike a human, a machine can look into that data store, to view, evaluate, and predict likely outcomes in real-time. Owing to its roots in artificial intelligence, the origins of Machine Learning (ML) can be dated back to the early 1950s when statistical methods were first discovered and refined. Fast forward to 2020 and the application of machine learning in business is being utilised across industries worldwide to solve complex business problems.
Are you interested to learn more about how the application of machine learning in business can be used in your organisation to analyse complex data sets to help strengthen and grow your business Or how Microsoft Azure for small business is changing the cloud environment to train, deploy, automate, manage, and track ML models?. Get in touch with our managed IT services team for the latest in ML applications.
Application of Machine Learning in Business Explained
Shows like Shark Tank have catapulted a lot of technological buzzwords into mainstream media from machine learning, industry disruption, predictive modelling, deep learning, data mining, blockchain, and cloud services. The question is, are these the words of the future or are they being used in real use cases today. We take a look at how the machine learning application in business intelligence is drastically altering the business landscape and how we interact with the world around us.
What is Machine Learning?
Machine learning is a data science – At its core ML uses a very powerful brain (or computer) to extract meaningful information from a large set of data. Traditionally, we would have to comb through the data by hand and even then, we may not be able to learn from it. ML algorithms can sort and learn from this data to provide real-time insights into the past, the present and have even been shown to predict the possible future.
Real Use Cases
Ever wondered if that chat box that pops up in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen is a real person? Or how your favourite social media platforms know what to show you on your feed? Chances are a machine has used a complex set of tools to analyse countless data points to provide the answers that are relevant to you. It sounds complicated but machine learning is actually being utilised and implemented across many applications, some without us even knowing it’s there.
- Financial Services – The typical financial institution will process millions of transactions per day with Mastercard alone having the ability to process over 3.4 billion transactions daily. ML algorithms are used to quickly analyse this enormous data set to classify potentially fraudulent activity, predict volatility and liquidity in financial markets, predict behavioural patterns for instant credit decisions and provide better-personalised banking experiences to customers.
- IT and Computing Services – Machine Learning is being used in IT and computing to provide predictive maintenance, to fix technical issues before they occur, eliminate manual data entry, detect spam, and provide image recognition for a range of applications. Companies such as Google are using it to provide relevant search results to queries, and Microsoft is offering its Azure suite of ML tools to allow businesses to forecast behaviours, outcomes and trends. Continue reading for more on Microsoft Azure for small business.
- Healthcare Industry – In the healthcare industry, machine learning application in business intelligence is being used to help the timely identification and diagnosis of diseases through genome-based sequencing, identifying patterns to speed up drug discovery and manufacturing, and medical imaging to aid in rapid diagnosis.
- Marketing and Sales – In the digital age, shoppers have become accustomed to a completely personalised experience, where cart suggestions are made based on buying history, and 24-hour customer service is becoming the norm. ML is being used to develop new products based on consumer behaviour, optimise content for user intent, and take the guesswork out of advertising campaigns. The application of ML in marketing and sales has indeed ‘disrupted’ the industry, with studies indicating this is an area where ML will continue to be highly beneficial.
- Manufacturing – Leading manufacturers are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence, machine learning and the Internet of Things to automate their manufacturing capabilities. ML is being used in the manufacturing industry to find problems before they become problems, improve quality assurance procedures, and increase the intelligence of robots.
The Future of Machine Learning
With the growing demand for machine learning scientists and spending on artificial intelligence and the application of machine learning in business expected to reach over US$57 billion by 2021, an ML algorithm would likely predict that machine learning in business is here to stay. Going forward it’s predicted that ML will continue to play an important part with how we interact with the world; We will have better search engine experiences, fine-tuned shopping, instant access to data at the sound of our voice, and cars that drive themselves will become the norm.
Incorporating Machine Learning into your Business Today
Incorporating some applications of machine learning into your business is easier than you think. There is a host of available software options to choose from including image recognition, voice activation/recognition, and email and spam filtering. Businesses who are unaccustomed to ML can start small by simply adding an automated chatbot to their website to process customer enquiries; For businesses who want to fully harness the power of machine learning, the Microsoft Azure suite for small business has tools to fit each task.
Microsoft Azure for Small Business
Microsoft Azure is a cloud-based environment that your business can utilise to train, deploy, manage, track, and automate machine learning models. Using the latest machine learning application in business intelligence tools, Azure can incorporate with other popular open-source tools such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, and scikit-learn to provide a seamless user experience. Users can start on their local machine and scale out to the cloud when ready.
Service tools include Azure Machine Learning Designer, allowing you to drag and drop modules to build out experiments, R scripts or notebooks, which you can use to write your code, a Visual Studio Code extension and the ability to track metrics and build end-to-end workflow pipelines. Microsoft Azure for Small Business is available in two editions ‘Basic’ and ‘Enterprise’ each offering an assortment of machine learning tools for developers and data scientists to use in their workplace. Get a Free IT Audit today to see how Microsoft Azure can be leveraged in your business.
At Connected Platforms, we continue to provide our tailored managed IT services to small businesses needing reliable IT solutions. Whether your business needs cloud services, IT procurement, small business Wi-Fi or the very latest in machine learning for your online presence; Get in touch with us today to see why we have become the IT services provider of choice for many small businesses Brisbane wide.
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