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cognitiveclouds1 · 4 years ago

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SUCCESSFUL AI STARTUPS: CAN YOUR BUSINESS OVERCOME THE AI CHALLENGE IN 2021?

AI has time and again failed to live up to the promise that surrounds it, despite periods of significant scientific advances. Technological progress has however gathered pace especially in the past decade. Machine-learning algorithms have progressed, owing to the development of reinforcement-learning and deep learning techniques based on neural networks. Ranging from language translators to facial recognition and assistants like Alexa and Siri, AI now powers so many real-world apps that it's become commonplace. Businesses across industries are utilizing AI to power their operations increasingly, along with these consumer applications.

Various factors have contributed to the recent advancements in the field. Compared to even a decade ago, we have exponentially more computing capacity to train more complex and larger models. The humongous amounts of data being generated and available now to train AI algorithms is another key factor. Now despite these advancements, many issues remain that will require more breakthroughs to make more headway. Till now, most of the progress has been in what is referred to as "narrow AI." Here machine-learning techniques are being developed to solve very particular problems, for instance, in natural language processing. The harder problems come up when dealing with "artificial intelligence," where the challenge is to build an AI that can work on general problems in much the same way that humans can. Most believe we're decades away from this becoming a commonplace reality.

So what sets apart a successful AI startup in today's landscape?

Have a measurable and clearly defined goal that results in business value. As a business owner, you should look at AI with the lens of business potential rather than merely automation for small gains. From a broad perspective, AI can support 3 critical business needs today: building insight from data analysis, automating industry processes and engaging with users and employees. Ambitious projects that cater to the utopia of tomorrow are less likely to succeed than humble projects that enhance the business processes of today.

Work on a long-term AI strategy. A well-thought-out AI strategy will serve as a roadmap for your company towards building value while creating defensible moats too. Then start small. Once your team begins to see the initial AI projects succeeding and build a deeper understanding of the technology themselves, you will be able to identify the places where AI can serve best and re-route resources to those areas.

Embrace responsible AI. Don't move too fast and "re-invent" things. The project has to be technically feasible. Too many businesses are still starting projects that are impossible to realize with today's AI tech. Before kickoff, ensuring trusted AI engineers do due diligence on a project increases your board's conviction in its feasibility.

Acknowledge the internal talent gap. Identify the gap between what you are working to accomplish and what you have the internal strength to achieve within the time frame. No business today has sufficient in-house AI talent. To gain that initial momentum faster, partner with an outsourced team with strong technical AI expertise. Much of the optimization and construction of deep neural networks remains an art demanding real expertise. With the rise of digital content fortunately such as massive open online courses or MOOCs like ebooks and Coursera, it is more cost-effective than ever to train employees in new skills like AI.

Read more : https://www.cognitiveclouds.com/insights/successful-ai-startups-can-your-business-overcome-the-ai-challenge-in-2021/

#ai #artificial intelligence #cognitiveclouds #machine learning

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cognitiveclouds1 · 4 years ago

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10 THINGS TOP SAAS COMPANIES NEED TO WATCH OUT FOR IN 2021

The untapped potential is still enormous. This might read like unbridled optimism, but it's more. There's still a lot of pain points in SaaS that are unsolved, and businesses will pay good money to have their problems solved.

SaaS itself is trending. Search queries for "SaaS" are consistently on the rise. SaaS industry growth doesn't look like it'll slow anytime soon. The SaaS market size is expected to cross $150 billion in 2020. With this growth comes a few core trends: expansion in primed markets, a striving for simplicity in mature markets overwhelmed with their current SaaS Development solutions, and innovation in untapped markets.

As a SaaS development Company, our team has insight into SaaS app usage across industries and functions, giving us incredible insight on the impact of SaaS proliferation on companies of every size and on analyzing data on a sample of firms of all sizes and reviewing consumer needs below are the key SaaS market trends for 2020:

1.Analytics is taking center stage

Analytics and data over the last few years have been a growing focus point in SaaS. Companies are investing more and more on SaaS applications for business intelligence. User spending on such apps is bound to grow. More businesses in 2020 are likely to adopt specialized analytics tools. Now is the time for companies that have long battled with trusting the data at their fingertips to embrace new SaaS solutions that deliver reliable numbers.

2.We'll see more vertical-specific SaaS applications crop up to serve particular pain points

Vertical-specific SaaS Application Development companies tend to see growth faster than horizontal companies too. And they form the largest portion of the overall SaaS market. A vertical niche refers to a specific type of business (such as for dental offices or appointment software), while a horizontal one refers to a specific use case catering to every type of business (such as email marketing software). Employees and business owners alike enjoy using tools that were designed specifically for the needs of their industry.

3.Freemium is here to stay

This refers to a strategy used by various SaaS companies to reduce one of the main barriers to adoption: budget. We're all now ardent supporters of Freemium but were taken aback to discover that, on average, companies of every size are using 3x more free apps than paid apps. In spite of the debate about its effectiveness for B2B, Freemium clearly is still a great user acquisition strategy for SaaS businesses. The best of them have figured out how to remain sticky and traverse upgrade paths based on value over time.

4.For the sake of simplicity, All-in-one is back in trend

A couple of years back, nobody wanted the jack of all trades, master of none product anymore. They were all hunting for multiple best-in-breed apps that one could integrate together. But "all in one" is a real benefit in oversaturated markets. Simplicity is a huge win, especially for small businesses. When so many SaaS companies are still working on building one tool that integrates with others, smart SaaS founders will continue to explore the value of "all in one," particularly for small businesses.

5.Best-in-breed applications aren't going anywhere

A best-in-breed application isn't offering you a large platform that caters to endless use cases. When it comes to certain SaaS products that are complicated and enormously expensive to build, we'll see more firms emerge with the aim of working far more efficiently than legacy ones, but for one particular core use case.

6.There is a real need for API connections.

Whether you're an "all in one" or "best of breed" SaaS company, there are going to be plenty of reasons for integrations. As companies strive for better data utilization and management and efficiency, SaaS products will need to prioritize APIs and integrations, or they will risk losing users to competitors who do.

7.SaaS as a platform for buying services

Services are a reliable and great business model. Even more entrepreneurs in 2020 will innovate new ways to build scalable service companies inside easy-to-use SaaS platforms.