Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer just a concept from science fiction movies. It has become an integral part of our everyday life. From personal voice assistants through autonomous vehicles (AVs) to advanced medical systems – AI transforms the way we live and work. As a result of incredible technological advancements AI is used in various fields, providing innovations that change our reality. This article will review the most interesting Comarch products where AI is used and we will consider the benefits of its development.
Artificial intelligence (AI) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
First, let's take a look at the solutions used in the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and, more specifically, in such services as OCR, BI Point and Comarch ERP Optima.
Comarch OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is an application using artificial intelligence algorithms to recognise text from scanned documents, including handwriting. In a business context it provides significant time savings, because by using the Comarch OCR tool you do not have to manually enter data from paper invoices. All you need is just a cell phone camera and an Internet connection to enable the application to automatically read and catalogue information from an invoice. Using the integrated AI the program converts image into a digital document recognising all relevant data – buyer's name, VAT numbers, net amount (VAT excluded), VAT amount and gross amount (VAT included), VAT rate, etc.
Another application of AI can be found in one of our key products – Comarch ERP Optima. As a result of AI-supported research, we constantly analyse and customise our systems. By monitoring users' daily processes, we are able to understand how they use the individual modules of Optima system, which functionalities are rarely used, which processes can be simplified and which components are difficult to access.
AI plays a key role also in BI Point – our quick business report generation tool. As a result of cloud analytics and identifying the interdependence between data, customers can obtain advanced visualizations, interactive dashboards and performance indicator charts with just a few clicks. BI Point, using advanced algorithms makes it possible to compare sales, marketing data or public statistics without the need to employ an analyst.
AI guards financial security
Money laundering is a practice of introducing funds from criminal activity into legal financial circulation. This is a global problem that affects the stability of economies and public finances. This practice is used by criminal organisations, including drug cartels, terrorist and corruption groups to hide the sources of their income. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the value of laundered funds annually ranges from 2 to 5% of global GDP, which translates into sums ranging from 800 billion to 2 trillion dollars.
AI-based anti-money laundering solutions allow financial institutions to significantly increase the accuracy and reduce the time needed to monitor transactions – a standard procedure that requires extensive knowledge and experience. Thus, they relieve the workload of bank employees, reducing the total time required to analyse the “red flags”.
And here again Comarch comes to the rescue. Anti-Money Laundering is a system that monitors suspicious transactions with unprecedented speed and precision, at the same time minimising false alarms. This solution can also identify and understand relations and similarities between data and then learns how to detect anomalies or classify and predict specific events.
Another system that actively supports our finances while using AI is Comarch Wealth Management (CWM). The CWM not only streamlines the asset management processes, but also improves the quality of customer service by increasing the availability of information, speed of response and the customisation of investment offer. As a result of advanced technologies and the support of financial advisers the platform allows you to effectively manage investment portfolios in a dynamic and demanding market environment – of individual wealthy and business clients as well as retail clients.
The artificial intelligence (AI) can also be used in finances to assess the credit risk score by using behavioural data, customer transaction history or social media activity. Comarch Loan Origination is an advanced software developed for financial institutions. It automates and streamlines the loan origination process. Its main goal is to increase operational efficiency, improve the decision-making processes and provide better experiences both for financial institutions and clients throughout the entire loan origination process.
Machine learning cares about our lives
In Comarch Healthcare we implement advanced technologies in the healthcare industry. Our solutions make life easier for patients and doctors alike. This results, among others, from utilising advanced potential offered by Machine Learning (ML). Intelligent algorithms capable of independent correlation and finding interconnections, are one of the underlying foundations for the development of telemedicine systems.
One of the solutions that streamline the processes taking place inside the medical sector, is the Comarch Medical Algorithmic Platform (CMAP). The CMAP is a central platform based on advanced learning algorithms. Its use in medicine provides multi-dimensional solutions both for diagnostics and managing a medical facility. The algorithms used by CMAP are able to process large volumes of data and then sort it out to provide the doctor only with relevant information.
Another product designed for preventive checks, diagnostics and monitoring cardiac patients is Comarch CardioVest. Special electrodes used in our product provide safe, comfortable and long-term electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring. The signal from ECG monitoring is sent to the CMAP, where AI algorithms identify abnormalities, automatically detecting heart problems.
Invisible support of telecommunications companies
The artificial intelligence plays an increasingly important role in the telecommunications industry, bringing numerous benefits and development opportunities. Below we present some key applications of AI in telecommunications:
- Customer service and chatbots: AI is widely used in customer service applications to automate processes with chatbots. Chatbots can answer simple inquiries, provide information on services and help solve problems, which improves the customer service performance.
- Big data analytics: Telecom systems generate large amounts of data including users’ data, transactions and network traffic. AI can analyse the data in real time, identify patterns, predict user’ needs and optimise network and resource management.
- Optimisation of business processes: AI supports optimising the business processes of telecom service providers, including customer relationship management (CRM), inventory management or human resources planning.
- Network management and maintenance: AI supports the management of telecom networks by automating the monitoring processes, diagnosing problems and optimising network performance. AI systems can quickly respond to failures and predict maintenance needs, which reduces downtimes and improves the quality of services.
And this previous item refers to products from the following Comarch line: Intelligent Assurance & Analytics and Integrated Assurance. They help telecom service providers quickly detect network errors, diagnose incidents, or immediately repair faults. It is carried out by implementing an advanced analytical module, using the latest achievements not only in AI and machine learning, but also in Big Data and multidimensional data analysis.
Customer involvement and AI
"The customer is always right" – a phrase that has been taught to sellers for years, takes on a new meaning in the context of advanced technologies. Today’s marketing relies less on demographics or popular trends. Instead, it focuses more on finding the answer to the following question – who exactly our customers are? To gain their interest, you have to be fully aware of their individual needs.
And once again, we come to the rescue. Comarch Loyalty Management (CLM) allows you to create and run attractive mechanisms for involving and rewarding customers, makes it easier to effectively manage the participants’ data, supports communication via multiple channels and provides information on program results. The CLM uses advanced features based on AI and machine learning to allow creating modern, customised retail offers and detecting loyalty frauds.
Speaking of shopping, we have to mention the Offer Personalization feature. It allows us to find patterns in customer shopping carts and offer products matching their preferences. In addition, shops using the feature can easily calculate the total time of customer involvement in a product and determine the best moment to present their offer.
The last worth mentioning functionality in the context of customer-seller relationship is Sentiment Classification. It allows us to quickly read customer opinions published via social media. Classifying comments in terms of their positive, negative or neutral sentiment is just a small fracture of possibilities offered by the solution.
As shown in the examples above, artificial intelligence (AI) is already revolutionising our lives and the company operations on multiple levels. From routine task automation thorough service customisation to the development of new technologies and innovative solutions, AI becomes an indispensable part of contemporary reality. However, it’s just the beginning. In the coming years we should expect further development of AI technology exerting an increasing impact on our everyday lives and the way we work. The responsible use of these technologies, providing data security and the balance between automation and human creativity, will be of key importance. The changes brought by AI are unavoidable, and their shape depends on our ability to adapt and develop.