By 2025, a staggering 90 percent of enterprise applications will use AI. While artificial intelligence is by no means a new technological advancement, it is one that’s rapidly changing.

Until the early 2010s, AI use cases were largely confined to data-driven business processes, such as data analysis and error detection. Now, the world is beginning to realize its potential for more creative pursuits, such as generating original artwork and literature.

The question is: what makes these AI technologies so transformative for businesses?

Today, we’ll focus specifically on natural language processing (NLP), detailing what it is and how it can complement your digital transformation efforts.

How does natural language processing work?

NLP allows computers to engage with and interpret “natural language”, rather than a specifically designed programming language. It does this through a blend of computational linguistics and deep learning models.

First, these tools digest and understand the meaning, syntax, and semantics behind human language. Then, they translate this meaning into rule-based algorithms that can trigger certain actions, such as text generation, translation, and transcription.

The growing ecosystem of NLP applications includes:

  • Chatbots
  • Text generation software
  • Voice assistants
  • Language translation tools

Many of these applications are already available for consumer use, with individuals harnessing them for tasks such as translating documents or even writing poetry. But they can have far-reaching benefits when deployed in the corporate world, too.

How can it benefit your digital transformation?

With unfathomably large volumes of data at their disposal, many businesses struggle to extract value in a timely manner — particularly when they analyze and manage this data manually. The longer you spend on analysis, the longer it takes to adapt to changing customer needs.

This is where AI plays an important role. NLP can conduct large-scale analysis, helping you to understand your market better, increase visibility over your internal processes, and manage resources more effectively.

To give you a taste of what you can achieve with NLP, here are some specific use cases:

  • Speed up customer support. Chatbots that use NLP can detect positive or negative patterns in a person’s speech, as well as flag any relevant key terms. After recognizing more complex issues and their causes (for example, “product bug” or “delayed shipment”), these bots can direct any challenging support ticket to a relevant human expert. This not only reduces the number of simple requests customer service representatives handle but can better prepare them for finding a suitable resolution.
  • Inform product UX journeys. For software developers, analyzing customer sentiment and product feedback can better inform product UX/UI journeys. For example, if an NLP application identifies complaints around difficult navigation, your product teams can then add ‘improve application navigation’ to their list of improvements. Alternatively, if you notice many users requesting a new product feature, you may choose to push this into development. This can help to keep your product relevant and your user base happy.
  • Generate new content. NLP tools can generate almost any genre of content you can think of, whether it’s a script for a social media video or a technical legal document. While the latter may require a careful eye to check for any errors, the process of generating and editing the document is much quicker than writing it from scratch yourself.
  • Improve data management and governance. When applied to your data, NLP tools can identify patterns and inconsistencies that may affect data quality and, as a result, your business intelligence efforts. They can also streamline your data management processes by automating tedious manual tasks such as data classification. Beyond freeing up your IT teams, this can also democratize data management across your business, enabling less data-minded individuals to manage these repetitive tasks.

Blending AI and human talent

This year, ChatGPT set the record for the fastest-growing userbase of an online consumer tool, with its traffic doubling in the span of a month.

Needless to say, consumers and businesses alike are already eagerly witnessing the creative and practical benefits of NLP solutions. However, as with any technological advancement, some organizations have ethical concerns over AI branching into more “human” tasks.

It’s important to note that NLP and automation are not here to strip away human involvement, despite what some headlines may claim. Rather, they augment your internal talent by replacing time-consuming manual processes. By combining the power of AI and human talent, you can boost your digital transformation initiatives and allow your teams to focus on more rewarding tasks.

If you’d like help with your digital transformation journey, please reach out to the Success Software team.