With a potential recession looming, business leaders need to start prepping. Cutting budgets and laying off staff should be a last resort. A smarter move is leveraging AI and automation to drive efficiency and stay nimble when the markets get rocky. This guide will walk through how leaders can deploy AI to handle uncertain economic times.
Lean on AI to Tighten Marketing Spending
When growth slows, marketing budgets take a hit. But AI provides better ways to stretch those marketing dollars than blind across-the-board cuts:
- Laser targeted campaigns – AI segments customers and focuses campaigns only on the most receptive groups rather than blasting everyone.
- Optimized ad creative – AI tools test endless creative variations to find what resonates and what doesn’t.
- Dialed-in budget allocation – Attribution modeling shows which campaigns and channels are working hardest, allowing you to double down on what’s most effective.
Tap AI to Find Pricing Sweet Spots
Raising prices can turn off customers fast. Slashing prices leaves money on the table. AI pricing tools can run sophisticated models to find optimal prices that maximize revenue:
- Demand modeling – Estimate how price elasticity differs across customer segments and products.
- Competitive intelligence – Benchmark pricing against competitors to stay aligned in the market.
- Promo optimization – Calculate the ideal frequency, depth, and duration of discounts and sales.
Forecast Smarter with AI
One of the costliest business mistakes is misjudging demand. AI-powered forecasting integrates more data signals to see economic fluctuations sooner:
- Macroeconomic trends – Incorporate leading indicators like consumer confidence into demand predictions.
- Market nuances – Allow for differences across regional markets based on hyperlocal economic factors.
- Events data – Factor in conferences, holidays, product releases that will spike or tank demand.
Automate Manual Work with AI Bots
Many companies still run on legacy manual processes that drain productivity. Software bots can take on repetitive tasks to free up human employees for judgment-based work:
- Data entry and processing – Extract info from documents and forms to enter into systems.
- Reporting and monitoring – Dig through data to auto-generate daily/weekly reports for stakeholders.
- Customer service – Help bots can efficiently handle common customer questions to ease support ticket volume.
Uncover Revenue Leakage
Billing errors, unused credits and more can quietly bleed revenues. AI auditing tools can pinpoint and plug these revenue leaks:
- Payment audits – Spot overpayments, duplicates, and exceptions that led to missed credits.
- Usage audits – Identify accounts using above allotted levels and not being upcharged.
- Churn analysis – Determine reasons customers leave and quantify associated lost revenue.
Simulate Strategic Scenarios with AI
When the future looks hazy, AI forecasting models allow leaders to stress test different scenarios and game out decisions:
- Demand forecasts – Model potential lost sales under low/medium/high recession impact projections.
- Investment models – Weigh payoffs from investments like entering new markets vs. pulling back.
- Hiring models – Compare tradeoffs of hiring freezes, attrition, lost productivity to optimize workforce size.
Time to Get AI-Powered
Using the above AI techniques sets companies up to roll with the punches of an uncertain economy. The key is picking the right use cases and committing resources to scale automation and analytics. Leaders who take an analytical approach and augment business acumen with AI intelligence will navigate turbulent times smoothly.