How to leverage algorithms for your business

Today, data has become the new oil. It is arguably the world’s most valuable resource. While technologies such as smartphones and the internet have made data abundant and ubiquitous, those who succeed will be the ones who know how to leverage the information to which they have access.

Algorithms, one of the core attributes, help organisations make sense of vast amounts of data and apply it to scale their operations and profits.

The question then, of course, remains, how can you apply algorithms to gain a competitive advantage and ensure your business doesn’t become redundant in the fast-paced, digital era.

There are five steps you can follow to automate your business:

1.   Determine which processes within your business can be automated and think out-of-the-box when you do so. After all, who would have thought that financial reporting could be automated?

2.   Secondly, collect and store data. Algorithms require lots of it to make validated decisions. Find relevant data sources that you can use and make your business environment wise by applying the internet of things to tap into new data sources;

3.   Ensure that you collect high-quality data because feeding your algorithms low-quality data will provide poor results;

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4.   Develop your algorithms and test, iterate, train, validate, improve in a continuous cycle to create better algorithms that can add value to your business;

5.   Repeat the first four steps to automate more business processes slowly.

The move toward algorithms is happening fast, much faster than we expect, let alone policymakers can keep up. It’s therefore vital for us to be aware of how algorithms will change how we do business, how we live and how we run our societies because before we know it, algorithms have taken over the world.

The best part about algorithms is you don’t need to be Google or Facebook to leverage data for the ultimate results. 

Data is accessible to anyone, and algorithms can work just as well for a start-up or a mid-market firm as for high-tech companies. We should also consider that the cost of artificial intelligence systems has dropped in the past few years, making it now within reach of just about any company in the world.

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