What are the advantages & disadvantages of starting a business from scratch?

Social media can be a useful tool for businesses, bringing advantages such as engaging with your audience and boosting website traffic. However there can also be disadvantages, including the resources required and negative feedback. Considering these pros and cons can help you decide the best approach to social media for your business.

The business benefits of effective social media use include:

Brand awareness - Compelling and relevant content will grab the attention of potential customers and increase brand visibility. See branding: the basics.
Brand reputation - You can respond instantly to industry developments and be seen as 'thought leader' or expert in your field. This can improve how your business is seen by your audience. See public relations (PR).
Cost effective - It can be much cheaper than traditional advertising and promotional activities. The costs of maintaining a social media presence are minimal. If you choose to invest in paid advertising, you can spend as much or as little as your budget allows.
Website traffic - Social content can boost traffic to your website. This can lead to increased online conversions such as sales and leads.
Evaluation - It is easy to measure how much website traffic you receive from social media. You can set up tracking to determine how many sales are generated by paid social advertising.
Customer interaction - You can deliver improved customer service and respond effectively to feedback. Positive feedback is public and can be persuasive to other potential customers. Negative feedback highlights areas where you can improve.
Target audience - Customers can find you through the social media platforms they use most. You can choose to maintain a presence on particular platforms that are in line with your target audience. For example, if you are targeting young people you could reach them through Snapchat. If you are seeking business customers, LinkedIn may be the best channel. See social media platforms.
Brand loyalty - You can build relationships with your customers through social media. This can help increase loyalty and advocacy.

Some of the downsides of using social media include:

Resources - You will need to commit resources to managing your social media presence, responding to feedback and producing new content. This can include hiring and training staff, investing in paid advertising and paying for the costs of creating video or image content.
Evaluation - While it is easy to quantify the return-on-investment in terms of online sales generated by social media advertising - there are some less tangible benefits. It can be hard to measure and place a monetary value on the brand awareness and reputation that social media can bring. It's difficult to know how social media effects sales in-store.
Ineffective use - Social media can be used ineffectively. For example, using social media to push for sales without engaging with customers, or failing to respond to negative feedback - may damage your reputation.

With all the hype around Artificial Intelligence - robots, self-driving cars, etc. - it can be easy to assume that AI doesn’t impact our everyday lives. In reality, most of us encounter Artificial Intelligence in some way or the other almost every single day. From the moment you wake up to check your smartphone to watching another Netflix recommended movie, AI has quickly made its way into our everyday lives. According to a study by Statista, the global AI market is set to grow up to 54 percent every single year. But what exactly is AI? Will it really serve good to mankind in the future? Well, there are tons of advantages and disadvantages of Artificial Intelligence which we’ll discuss in this article.

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What is Artificial Intelligence?

Before we jump on to the advantages and disadvantages of Artificial Intelligence, let us understand what is AI in the first place. From a birds eye view, AI provides a computer program the ability to think and learn on its own. It is a simulation of human intelligence (hence, artificial) into machines to do things that we would normally rely on humans. There are three main types of AI based on its capabilities - weak AI, strong AI, and super AI.

Weak AI - Focuses on one task and cannot perform beyond its limitations (common in our daily lives)
Strong AI - Can understand and learn any intellectual task that a human being can (researchers are striving to reach strong AI)
Super AI - Surpasses human intelligence and can perform any task better than a human (still a concept)

Advantages & Disadvantages of Artificial Intelligence

An artificial intelligence program is a program that is capable of learning and thinking. It is possible to consider anything to be artificial intelligence if it consists of a program performing a task that we would normally assume a human would perform. Let's begin with the advantages of artificial intelligence.

Advantages of Artificial Intelligence

1. Reduction in Human Error

One of the biggest advantages of Artificial Intelligence is that it can significantly reduce errors and increase accuracy and precision. The decisions taken by AI in every step is decided by information previously gathered and a certain set of algorithms. When programmed properly, these errors can be reduced to null.

2. Zero Risks

Another big advantage of AI is that humans can overcome many risks by letting AI robots do them for us. Whether it be defusing a bomb, going to space, exploring the deepest parts of oceans, machines with metal bodies are resistant in nature and can survive unfriendly atmospheres. Moreover, they can provide accurate work with greater responsibility and not wear out easily.

3. 24x7 Availability

There are many studies that show humans are productive only about 3 to 4 hours in a day. Humans also need breaks and time offs to balance their work life and personal life. But AI can work endlessly without breaks. They think much faster than humans and perform multiple tasks at a time with accurate results. They can even handle tedious repetitive jobs easily with the help of AI algorithms.

4. Digital Assistance

Some of the most technologically advanced companies engage with users using digital assistants, which eliminates the need for human personnel. Many websites utilize digital assistants to deliver user-requested content. We can discuss our search with them in conversation. Some chatbots are built in a way that makes it difficult to tell whether we are conversing with a human or a chatbot.

We all know that businesses have a customer service crew that must address the doubts and concerns of the patrons. Businesses can create a chatbot or voice bot that can answer all of their clients' questions using AI.

Related Reading: Top Digital Marketing Trends

5. New Inventions

In practically every field, AI is the driving force behind numerous innovations that will aid humans in resolving the majority of challenging issues.

For instance, recent advances in AI-based technologies have allowed doctors to detect breast cancer in a woman at an earlier stage.

6. Unbiased Decisions

Human beings are driven by emotions, whether we like it or not. AI on the other hand, is devoid of emotions and highly practical and rational in its approach. A huge advantage of Artificial Intelligence is that it doesn't have any biased views, which ensures more accurate decision-making.

7. Perform Repetitive Jobs

We will be doing a lot of repetitive tasks as part of our daily work, such as checking documents for flaws and mailing thank-you notes, among other things. We may use artificial intelligence to efficiently automate these menial chores and even eliminate "boring" tasks for people, allowing them to focus on being more creative.

Example: In banks, it's common to see multiple document checks to obtain a loan, which is a time-consuming task for the bank's owner. The owner can expedite the document verification process for the advantage of both the clients and the owner by using AI Cognitive Automation.

8. Daily Applications

Today, our everyday lives are entirely dependent on mobile devices and the internet. We utilize a variety of apps, including Google Maps, Alexa, Siri, Cortana on Windows, OK Google, taking selfies, making calls, responding to emails, etc. With the use of various AI-based techniques, we can also anticipate today’s weather and the days ahead.

Example: About 20 years ago, you must have asked someone who had already been there for instructions when you were planning a trip. All you need to do now is ask Google where Bangalore is. The best route between you and Bangalore will be displayed, along with Bangalore's location, on a Google map.

9. AI in Risky Situations

One of the main benefits of artificial intelligence is this. By creating an AI robot that can perform perilous tasks on our behalf, we can get beyond many of the dangerous restrictions that humans face. It can be utilized effectively in any type of natural or man-made calamity, whether it be going to Mars, defusing a bomb, exploring the deepest regions of the oceans, or mining for coal and oil.

For instance, the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power facility in Ukraine. As any person who came close to the core would have perished in a matter of minutes, at the time, there were no AI-powered robots that could assist us in reducing the effects of radiation by controlling the fire in its early phases.

Let us now look at what are the main disadvantages that Artificial intelligence holds.

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Disadvantages of Artificial Intelligence

1. High Costs

The ability to create a machine that can simulate human intelligence is no small feat. It requires plenty of time and resources and can cost a huge deal of money. AI also needs to operate on the latest hardware and software to stay updated and meet the latest requirements, thus making it quite costly.

2. No creativity

A big disadvantage of AI is that it cannot learn to think outside the box. AI is capable of learning over time with pre-fed data and past experiences, but cannot be creative in its approach. A classic example is the bot Quill who can write Forbes earning reports. These reports only contain data and facts already provided to the bot. Although it is impressive that a bot can write an article on its own, it lacks the human touch present in other Forbes articles.

3. Unemployment

One application of artificial intelligence is a robot, which is displacing occupations and increasing unemployment (in a few cases). Therefore, some claim that there is always a chance of unemployment as a result of chatbots and robots replacing humans.

For instance, robots are frequently utilized to replace human resources in manufacturing businesses in some more technologically advanced nations like Japan. This is not always the case, though, as it creates additional opportunities for humans to work while also replacing humans in order to increase efficiency.

4. Make Humans Lazy

AI applications automate the majority of tedious and repetitive tasks. Since we do not have to memorize things or solve puzzles to get the job done, we tend to use our brains less and less. This addiction to AI can cause problems to future generations.

5. No Ethics

Ethics and morality are important human features that can be difficult to incorporate into an AI. The rapid progress of AI has raised a number of concerns that one day, AI will grow uncontrollably, and eventually wipe out humanity. This moment is referred to as the AI singularity.

6. Emotionless

Since early childhood, we have been taught that neither computers nor other machines have feelings. Humans function as a team, and team management is essential for achieving goals. However, there is no denying that robots are superior to humans when functioning effectively, but it is also true that human connections, which form the basis of teams, cannot be replaced by computers.

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7. No Improvement

Humans cannot develop artificial intelligence because it is a technology based on pre-loaded facts and experience. AI is proficient at repeatedly carrying out the same task, but if we want any adjustments or improvements, we must manually alter the codes. AI cannot be accessed and utilized akin to human intelligence, but it can store infinite data.

Machines can only complete tasks they have been developed or programmed for; if they are asked to complete anything else, they frequently fail or provide useless results, which can have significant negative effects. Thus, we are unable to make anything conventional.

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Artificial Intelligence - The Bottom Line

Now that you know both the advantages and disadvantages of Artificial Intelligence, one thing is for sure has massive potential for creating a better world to live in. The most important role for humans will be to ensure that the rise of the AI doesn’t get out of hand. Although there are both debatable pros and cons of artificial intelligence , its impact on the global industry is undeniable. It continues to grow every single day driving sustainability for businesses. This certainly calls for the need of AI literacy and upskilling to prosper in many new age jobs. Simplilearn’s AI and Machine Learning certification course, AI program or MS in Artificial Intelligence will help you fast track your career in AI and prepare you for one of the world’s most exciting jobs. This program covers both AI basics and advanced topics such as deep learning networks, NLP, and reinforcement learning. Get started with this course today and build your dream career in AI.

About the Author

What are the advantages & disadvantages of starting a business from scratch?

Nikita Duggal

Nikita Duggal is a passionate digital marketer with a major in English language and literature, a word connoisseur who loves writing about raging technologies, digital marketing, and career conundrums.

What are examples of advantage?

His plan has the advantage of being less expensive than other options. He lacked the advantages of an advanced education. Speed is an advantage in most sports. The company's only advantage over the competition is its location.

What is the term advantage?

noun. ad·van·tage əd-ˈvan-tij. : superiority of position or condition. Higher ground gave the enemy the advantage. : a factor or circumstance of benefit to its possessor.

What is the definition of advantage and disadvantage?

A disadvantage is the opposite of an advantage, a lucky or favorable circumstance. At the root of both words is the Old French avant, "at the front." Definitions of disadvantage. the quality of having an inferior or less favorable position. Antonyms: advantage, vantage.

What means greatest advantage?

If something is shown to good advantage or to best advantage, it is shown in a way that reveals its best features.