The coronavirus crisis, or Covid-19, is having a massive impact on the population. In addition to this essential human aspect, the coronavirus also has very serious consequences on companies, from the smallest to the giants of the Cac 40.
However, solutions exist to limit the economic impact of confinement of the population, in particular, thanks to artificial intelligence technologies. Find out how to ensure business continuity during the Coronavirus outbreak.
Each day that passes sees the arrival of new measures decided by the government to try to stem the spread of the Coronavirus (Covid-19). Decisions aimed at limiting the movement of people seem particularly effective. Indeed, China, the original focus of the epidemic, sees the end of the tunnel after the application of drastic containment measures. But such actions have economic consequences for companies that can be catastrophic.
Some companies rely on artificial intelligence to organize their business continuity plan in this context of the Coronavirus epidemic, and they are making the right choice.
How AI can help you run a smarter small business
Artificial intelligence indeed, offers many companies, from the smallest SME to the largest multinational, tools to preserve their activity. A Chatbot development stuffed with AI can, for example, come to the aid of a Help Desk support, other robots are even capable of replacing specific healthcare workers who are very exposed during such a pandemic. And why not tomorrow, algorithms to prevent the spread of a virus-like Covid-19? Science Fiction, do you think? Not at all! Many solutions are already operational.
The chatbot, a solution for help desk support services, but not only!
How can a Chatbot help a business continue to operate in the event of a crisis like the one we are experiencing right now with the Coronavirus? Quite simply, by relieving employees of tasks that can be handled by robots. A particularly telling example is the use of a chatbot to help employees of a Help Desk support. Some Chatbots, doped with artificial intelligence, can respond to many issues, even complex ones, and thus free up time for employees who can focus on calls with higher added value.
It is, therefore, quite possible to leave people in charge of Help Desk support at home. These collaborators are therefore available to handle very specialized requests of which they are experts while letting most of the flow of requests be solved by a Chatbot.
Teleworking is thus, facilitated and physical exchanges between employees and customers reduced to nothing. In this very concrete case, a Chatbot with artificial intelligence can smartly help businesses with business continuity.
Did you know? A Chatbot can also prove to be an ideal tool in a training process. Indeed, some Chatbots, doped with artificial intelligence, can support employees step by step in their training process. Thus, a period of “forced teleworking” can become a good opportunity to upgrade your employees’ skills.
Robots instead of nursing staff
Let it be clear first of all, robot surgeons or doctors, this is not topical. On the other hand, robots are already deployed, mainly in Asia, in the context of the Coronavirus pandemic to assist caregivers. For now, these machines offer relatively simple functions, such as taking a temperature or dispensing medication. Beyond these uncomplicated tasks, some machines go further and are already capable of assisting a surgeon and even of taking samples without any assistance.
Chinese giant Alibaba’s DAMO Academy has even developed a new diagnostic technology boosted with artificial intelligence. Concretely, this AI is therefore capable of accurately interpreting the results of analyzes (x-rays, Futura-sciences.
Could artificial intelligence find cures for the COVID-19?
What better way than to find a cure or a vaccine for Coronavirus to ensure the continuity of the business? Google, via its British subsidiary DeepMind, indeed revealed on March 5, 2020, that it had mobilized its resources to decipher the coronavirus in detail.
A few weeks earlier, DeepMind had communicated on AlphaFold, an AI-based system capable of predicting protein structures. ” The 3D models of proteins that AlphaFold generates are much more precise than anything that has been done before – which marks significant progress in one of the central challenges of biology “, announced DeepMind at the time, information reproduced in this magazine article Numérama from Numérama magazine.
It is, therefore, on this innovative system that the current predictions published by the company are based. It could also, in the long term, help find cures for diseases such as the Coronavirus.