The widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing how businesses operate. Companies are exploring the potential of AI to solve complex problems, improve operational efficiency, and create new business opportunities. In this article, let’s explore how AI has become an essential component in Business Design.
Business Design is the discipline that focuses on designing and innovating business models, applying methodologies and tools typical of customer-centric design.
A business model describes “the logic by which an organization creates, distributes, and captures value.” Based on this definition, Alexander Osterwalder has developed the business model canvas tool, which visually encapsulates nine basic elements defining the strategy the company will implement through organizational structures, processes, and systems: customer segments, value propositions, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partnerships, and cost structure.
Business Design arises from the need for an approach to designing a corporate strategy that ensures the coexistence of product desirability for the customer, solution feasibility, and profitability and sustainability of the business model. It’s about designing to create value for the company and customers. The purpose of the business designer is to find a meeting point between the company’s business goals and the needs of the people to whom the company aims to bring value.
Although Business Design and Design Thinking provide two complementary approaches to the design and innovation of products and services, they focus on different aspects.
Design Thinking is a human-centered design process that aims to find desirable solutions for users that are technologically feasible and economically sustainable.
This iterative process is non-linear, meaning you can move freely between the various phases: empathizing with the customer, defining a problem, ideating solutions, building prototypes, and conducting prototype testing.
Business Design integrates elements of Design Thinking but focuses on the economic and strategic aspects. It concentrates on designing and optimizing business models to create economic value, while Design Thinking is a human-centered problem-solving methodology that focuses on creatively solving problems and generating innovative ideas
Artificial intelligence is the field of computer science concerned with creating systems and machines capable of mimicking the functioning of the human mind.
The idea of creating intelligent machines dates back to the early 20th century, but officially, this science emerged in 1956. Since then, there have been many applications, ranging from autonomous activity planning to automated theorem proving, robotics, natural language processing, and expert systems.
Currently, there is much attention on the introduction of generative AI within businesses as a competitive advantage, although the trend is shifting towards considering AI as a commodity, where its use could soon become a standard.
Particularly at the forefront of attention during this period are the implications of using Large Language Models (LLMs) and Large Action Models (LAMs) in business activities. These are complex models based on deep learning, meaning they rely on deep neural architectures, enabling them to learn from large amounts of data and perform complex tasks in the fields of natural language and data-driven actions.
Artificial intelligence (AI) offers numerous opportunities for companies that choose to utilize it, generally allowing them to improve operational efficiency, make data-driven decisions, and create new business opportunities.
By automating some complex business processes with AI, the need for human intervention is reduced, and operational efficiency is improved. For example, AI can be used to automate repetitive and tedious tasks, allowing staff to focus on higher-value tasks.
AI can analyze large amounts of data quickly and efficiently, making valuable information and insights available, which can improve decision-making processes, optimize product and service offerings, and enhance customer loyalty. For example, based on customer data, AI can identify behavior patterns, predict market trends, and personalize the customer experience.
In customer service, chatbots and virtual assistants are becoming increasingly common, as they allow companies to improve customer experience by reducing response times. These virtual assistants can answer customer questions, and provide technical support, and post-sale assistance quickly and efficiently.
Thanks to its analytical capabilities, AI can be used to predict customer behavior, market trends, and future business performance. These predictions allow companies to plan their marketing strategies more effectively, manage risks, and make informed decisions.
It’s certainly not the first time that technological progress has alarmed humans, who fear being replaced in their jobs by machines or seeing their freedom reduced. As with any technological revolution, some false myths and fears limit the use of AI in the business environment.
One of the main concerns is the loss of human jobs due to the use of AI to automate repetitive tasks or make processes more efficient. On the other hand, AI also creates new job opportunities, such as AI developers and data analysis specialists. Additionally, it’s worth considering that daily work becomes more efficient, and significant resources are freed up to be dedicated to higher-value activities.
Some people fear that AI could lead to excessive dependence on intelligent machines, negatively impacting creativity and reducing human autonomy. However, AI is a tool and cannot completely replace human thought and creativity; instead, it can support them.
Another concern revolves around the security and privacy of data accessed by AI. It’s important to adopt adequate measures to protect business data and ensure compliance with privacy regulations when using AI in business contexts, and beyond. However, AI can also be used to detect and prevent security threats.
Business Design must take into account the changes and opportunities that artificial intelligence is bringing to companies. AI can also contribute to improving the process of designing innovative and sustainable business models. Below, we see some ways in which AI can enhance business designers’ work.
AI can analyze large amounts of business data to identify patterns, trends, and business opportunities. This information will be useful for inspiring or guiding the design of innovative business models, making data-driven decisions, and instructing machine learning algorithms.
AI can generate innovative and creative ideas using deep learning algorithms. Based on these ideas, designers can explore new value propositions, revenue strategies, and overall new business models.
AI allows companies to design hyper-personalized customer experiences. AI can analyze customer data to create personalized offers and improve the customer experience based on their needs and preferences.
The processing capacity of AI allows finding insights to optimize business processes, so that business designers can design more efficient solutions, improving the business model strategy and reducing costs and risks for the company.
AI can predict market trends and future business performance using machine learning algorithms. These predictions can be used to make data-driven decisions and guide the design process.
The spread of artificial intelligence across all productive sectors is transforming the way we think about business strategies.
Despite some fears and false myths, AI offers numerous benefits for companies wishing to adopt a data-driven approach to innovation and value creation. To support companies in this change, Business Design can also use AI to significantly improve the strategic design process, enabling companies to create innovative, personalized, and efficient business models.
If you want to create or improve your product or service from a user experience perspective, contact us at Conflux for consultation. Our UX agency helps businesses from all industries improve and innovate with exceptional user experiences. We’ll guide you through every step of the project.
