Artificial intelligence in your businesss? It can offer enormous opportunities in terms of efficiency, productivity and costs. But how do you really get the most out of it? That's what we asked some top companies who have worked out specific use cases together with MbarQ, our AI partner within The Cronos Group.

It might not seem like it, but artificial intelligence has actually been around for a very long time. But since the rise of GenAI, it's only become more and more tangible. And while it has enormous potential, a lot of organizations are still struggling to integrate it into their business operations. So, how exactly do you get started with it? Well, we asked a number of companies from different industries that very question.

1. Collecting and analyzing data through automation

AI models can gather data, compare it and generate something brand-new with it extremely quickly, which is pretty handy if you need to write a text or prepare a presentation. But it goes far beyond that. Want a concrete example? Today, you can use AI to automate entire processes, analyze customer interactions and identify your next sales opportunities, for example.

And that’s exactly what our partner MbarQ did for one of their clients in the energy sector. So, how did that work out? We’ll gladly tell you all about it.

Energy supplier creates leads with AI assistant

To more easily identify potential customers, this organization in the energy sector worked with MbarQ to automate their upselling process for solar panels. “We leveraged Azure OpenAI for the logic part of the project. And then, we set it all up in PowerAutomate and and added a Voice Calling component”, says Stefan Schoonbrood of MbarQ. “This allows the AI system to automatically identify leads, call customers, and create a customized proposal.”

And now everything runs a lot smoother:

1. The Azure OpenAI model detects high energy consumption for a specific customer. And looks at satellite images to see if the customer has solar panels.
   
   
2. The system creates an opportunity in the CRM. Then, an employee of the company verifies the data and activates the AI assistant.
   
   
3. The Voice Calling Assistant contacts the customer via telephone to discuss the possibility of installing solar panels. For this, the questions that need to be covered are specified in advance.
   
   
4. The data from the phone call is recorded and analyzed. Based on this, the AI assistant then generates a proposal tailored to the customers needs.

So, by deploying AI in this innovative way, you can not only increase efficiency and productivity within your organization. But also take your customer service and lead generation to a whole new level.

2. Reducing costs and increasing efficiency

Automating tedious and repetitive tasks? That could save you a lot of time and money! And with the help of AI, that's now perfectly possible. By eliminating certain manual work, you can not only reduce human errors, but you also ensure that your colleagues can focus on other, more meaningful tasks. And that way, they'll get more satisfaction out of their job. 

For example, a major player in logistics is using AI to speed up their transportation administration. Wonder how that works?

Logistics company generates error-free transport documents

“To transport our goods, we encounter thousands of essential transport documentation every single day. In the past, our colleagues had to manually extract the necessary information”, says their Business Analyst. Not only did this take up an enormous amount of time, but it was also extremely susceptible to errors. “ Our drivers would sometimes get the wrong documents, resulting in administrative fines from customs.” So, how did they solve that? With AI, of course!

With proper prompting and a customized PowerAutomate process, they can now automatically analyze those documents, put them into a consistent format and import them into their management systems. “Our validation showed that our AI model is 98% accurate. And that it only takes 2 minutes per document. A lot faster and way more accurate than when you'd have to do it manually.”

3. Inspiring and innovating, in a secure way

As with any other technology, it is crucial for AI models to have the right governance and security approach. AI systems are very dependent on immense amounts of data, after all. And that makes them quite vulnerable to leaks and cyber attacks. But how exactly do you tackle that issue?

To protect their confidential data, a leading manufacturing company has built its own Machine Learning Assistant for internal use, based on the OpenAI model.

Manufacturing firm launches its own version of ChatGPT

“Due to the fact that our company creates innovative solutions on a daily basis, we come in contact with intellectual property (IP) quite a lot. So, for us, it's extremely important to keep our ideas and creations as secure as possible. And that's why we decided to launch our internal version of ChatGPT”, explains their Global IT Lead. “This way, we avoid the risk of free, publicly available AI tools having access to our organization's sensitive data. All while still being able to enjoy the productivity, efficiency and inspiration that AI has to offer.”

But it doesn't stop there for them. They're also heavily investing in research and training to explore new tools, experiment with them and outline the potential dangers.

How will you use AI in your organization?

Our experts are more than happy to explore how AI can make a difference in your business. Feel free to contact us to discuss your specific use case.