Artificial intelligence (AI), it would seem, is today’s business panacea. Its capabilities give you the power to transform your business into a well-oiled machine-learning force of nature.
What AI can do
At its most useful, AI simplifies processes, automates repetitive tasks, engages customers, and improves customer service and employee productivity. It also reduces costs across the board and supports scale.
In network management, it takes the vast amounts of data generated by internal processes and makes sense of it all, reducing downtime and improving network performance faster and more accurately than a highly evolved flock of super-humans ever could.
Think of your best performance ever. Then multiply it exponentially. That’s the power of AI.
Network management and AI
Today’s network managers have a lot on their plates. With today’s trend toward BYOD (bring your own device) and the growing number of different devices and operating systems in use across networks, managing it all would be impossible without AI intervention.
From Wi-Fi controllers, applications, and server logs to massive volumes of packet data, there are hundreds of things that could go wrong on any given day. Even if it were possible to analyze all these trends and apply insights to make the necessary improvements, would there even be a way to know whether the changes worked?
Seen in this light, conventional/traditional network concepts simply won’t cut it anymore. This is where AI and machine learning come in.
Some of the ways AI can help optimize network management include:
- Providing fast and accurate data analysis
- Pinpointing user performance issues on an individual basis
- Highlighting and predicting performance issues on a systemic basis
- Deploying preventative measures to mitigate slowdowns and data bottlenecks
- Delivering deeper insights into network issues, so network managers are dealing with factual data rather than pointing fingers
When you consider the scale that many companies are experiencing as a result of current tech advances, AI is really the only viable approach to resolving network issues. Combined with machine learning, IoT devices, and other emerging technologies, network managers now have a complete palette of tools to help them streamline, troubleshoot, and improve operations from end-to-end.
How AI and machine learning make life easier for the network manager
If the goal is to drive costs down, boost productivity, and improve user experience across the network, AI and machine learning can deliver.
AI helps humans
AI eliminates the need for human analysis of network data. It can predict network issues and make recommendations on how to fix them before they become issues—and, perhaps most importantly, it can simplify the entire process, giving network managers a single source of truth that can be accessed by all stakeholders. That single source takes a wide array of data sources and provides correlative insights as to how each is affecting the other.
In addition, AI remains in force 24/7, giving you a constant source of insight while taking the heat off of your IT department. This alone can drive significant gains in profitability, reducing IT time spent on complex problems and resulting in noticeable service improvements.
Machine learning makes AI more human
At its core, AI is meant to mimic human decisions and actions. It can take impossibly large volumes of data and translate them into actionable insights. As time goes by, the AI becomes more attuned to what processes work best, identifying patterns to make better decisions based on what has worked in the past. In short order, its predictive capabilities will help to improve the entire network system.
Who can benefit from AI and machine learning?
For companies who are experiencing rapid changes in scale, AI is the one essential technology that is going to enable success. As a company grows, customer—and employee—expectations grow along with it. A lapse in any aspect of service, whether it’s technology-based or human-based, can be seen as a failure to provide the basics. This can quickly lead to lost revenue, employee attrition, and a pile of red flowing to the bottom line.
As companies grow, the amounts of data they process will continue to pile up. AI and machine learning provide a platform that helps companies do a whole lot more with much, much less.
If you are experiencing rapid scale or if you find yourself unable to manage the changing needs of your operational infrastructure, it may be time to implement an AI and machine learning solution. If you have the data, you need a way to make sense of it all. AI is the only viable way to make this happen.
If you are doing business in Arkansas and would like to learn more about how AI can improve your network management capabilities, reach out to Business World today.
