Machine learning: the next move for entrepreneurs

Machine learning isn’t something new to entrepreneurs, but technological advances and the massive investments have made it available and accessible to many of them, no matter how large the business is. According to Forrester’s study, machine learning investments will increase with 300% by the end of the year, compared to the last year. The technology already made its mark in different areas such as self-driving cars, personalized recommendations or face-recognition filters.

It is clear that machine learning can do much more than recommend content and steer vehicles.  There is, in fact, a category of machine learning called “deep learning” which promises to change the game in the market completely. Deep learning uses artificial neural networks to draw conclusions autonomously and create new rules for unstructured data.

Deep learning at its best

Let’s try to detail a little what deep learning is. To do that, let’s imagine that we seek to teach a child and a computer simultaneously to recognize dogs in photos. With traditional machine learning, the computer needs all the features that dogs have to identify images. These models can then make predictions based on those features, but if a picture doesn’t fit the pattern, the machine cannot adapt. On the other hand, a child after viewing enough images will create a mental model to distinguish what is or isn’t a dog, no matter if the picture is complete or not. Deep learning takes unstructured data without guidance and determines automatically by analyzing all the pixels.

Deep learning for entrepreneurs

In the future will certainly exist more applications of deep learning, but today’s entrepreneurs can use it in three ways:

1. Finding new customers. No matter how good a product is, people can’t buy a product they know nothing about. Deep learning can help entrepreneurs find the right markets. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter or Google, use deep learning ads, which businesses can use to extrapolate relevant audiences from people viewing them. According to the latest State of Marketing report, B2B companies spent on social media advertisements with 130% more than the past two years. That is only the first step, the next is reaching the target, and deep learning can help there as well. Companies can use chatbots powered by deep learning algorithms to grow audiences and engage customers, using personalized experiences.
2. Organizing data and filling gaps. Incomplete data is a critical problem for most companies. According to the Openprise study, 41% of B2B marketers consider missing data the biggest challenge. Fortunately, as they gather data, deep learning models get smarter and can identify what’s missing and track it down efficiently.
3. Performing analysis. Some companies check every product manually for defects. Well, with deep learning everything from manufacturing to construction and consumer electronics could use automated error analysis. Training a model for quality inspection takes large amounts of data and processing power, but entrepreneurs can get started with cloud programs, which will make the process easier.  

Machine learning is now an influent foundational technology for entrepreneurs to take into consideration. It will provide competitive advantages for those who implement such strategies. New companies should look at each thing that is created now manually in their industry, and those who choose this technology in the future will be the leaders in the market.

If you have questions about the topic, feel free to comment in the section below.

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