Efficient operations: Five core business areas where AI can drive revenue and unlock growth

According to the United Nations, AI has the potential to contribute up to $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030, with Africa potentially generating $1.2 trillion of that. With the potential to unleash significant growth and development in key industries across the continent, AI is changing the way businesses operate, driving innovation, improving efficiency, and transforming people’s lives.

Companies of all sizes that have already invested in AI are reaping its benefits, from increased business productivity and agility to improved customer experience and decision-making, with McKinsey noting that AI leaders outperform their industry peers by a factor of 3.4. Here are some key areas and examples of how companies can leverage AI to drive revenue growth.

Finance and Billing: In 2023, Kenya’s AI sector received $1.96 billion in funding, according to a report by the GSMA. The report highlighted how Kenyans are leveraging AI to improve business processes and enhance daily activities.

For example, when it comes to expense invoices, an AI tool with built-in image recognition will allow businesses to scan their invoices with the system and then automatically generate the amount, location, date, time, and expense category, helping to save a lot of time and effort. Meanwhile, for invoices, AI can significantly speed up the process of onboarding new customers by automating large parts of it.

Prioritize: Another key area is new lead generation. AI can help assess the quality of leads your sales team is generating. After all, two or three great leads may be more valuable than ten weak leads.

Using a scoring system, AI can help evaluate leads based on their quality. This allows the sales team to better assess which leads are worth pursuing. In turn, this should allow them to make more sales at a more meaningful level.

Improve customer experience: Customer experience, not product or price differences, has been the key differentiator for some time now. Customers are willing to spend more, are more likely to remain loyal to a company, and recommend the company to their friends and family if they have a good experience with it.

For example, the introduction of chatbots by Kenyan banks has simplified digital banking, improved customer onboarding, and facilitated increased transactions on online and mobile banking platforms. Therefore, businesses need to do more to ensure that their customer experience truly excels.

Better targeted marketing: The most effective marketing today is highly personalized and targeted marketing. AI can make it much easier to achieve the level of targeted personalization needed for marketing success today.

Once integrated with company data, an AI marketing tool can create and refine personalized marketing content based on individual CRM data.

There is a strong correlation between employee productivity and revenue. Employee productivity, in turn, depends on positive employee experiences. The more productive your employees are, the more revenue and profit margins you will have. AI can help improve productivity and the overall employee experience by automating repetitive tasks, allowing employees to focus on the kind of meaningful work that drives revenue.

While AI can add tremendous value when it comes to increasing revenue within organizations, it is also critical that businesses know what they are getting into when adopting AI. This means conducting thorough background research and ensuring they choose tools that meet their needs and adhere to privacy best practices.

The author is Regional Director – East Africa, Zoho Corp.