The invention of AI has proved to be a bliss for business operating in almost all industries. Statistics demonstrate that an increasing number of organizations are employing this advanced technology within their business operations. So, the applications of artificial intelligence is increasing rapidly.
The market size of AI was valued at approx. $27 billion in 2019, and it is projected to reach about $267 billion by 2027. Businesses worldwide are leveraging the power of AI to optimize their processes and earn higher profits.
Applications of Artificial Intelligence
Though AI is applicable to all industries, some major ones are explained below:
The combination of AI and machine learning (ML) is slowly reinventing the HR world. The sector can benefit from these technologies for two main reasons:
There are surprising amounts of top quality data in the field.
HR departments in companies feel essential as well as the pressure of time.
AI can automate some aspects of the recruiting and HR job, freeing professionals to focus on other things like onboarding, training, etc. This can also streamline and improve processes for betterment.
#Intelligent Cybersecurity
Cyber attacks on businesses are massively growing and evolving. Depending on the size of your company, there are countless signals that must be analyzed to evaluate the risk.
Unfortunately, this is not a human-scale problem anymore. In response, AI-powdered tools have emerged to help intelligence and cybersecurity teams to work efficiently and effectively.
Using AI, companies can easily detect vulnerabilities in business applications like Financial or ERP systems. For instance, some of the world’s most protected airports use this technology to analyze your identity when you are on your way to it. This saves security personnel time while making them proficient.
#Healthcare
A research report by Healthcare IT News showed that 63% of research subjects agreed that AI and ML would provide excellent value in all specialty care departments.
In the coming few decades, AI is going to reinvent the healthcare industry. The technology helps the industry leverage the data at their disposal and improve patient outcomes to a greater extent.
AI enhances predictability, reliability, and consistency when it comes to service quality and patient safety. It’s true that technology cannot replace doctors, but it makes them more efficient and effective by taking their cognitive burden.
# eCommerce
AI provides a competitive edge to eCommerce businesses, especially because it fits these companies’ size and budget.
The technology uses ML to automatically tag, organize and visually search content by labeling features of videos and images.
At the same time, AI helps buyers quickly discover products based on their preferences for colors, sizes, shapes, and even brand.
Its visual capabilities ease shopping online, thus improving customer experience with eCommerce stores that leverage this evolving technology.
Final Words
Today, every business uses this technology in one or another way. Besides above applications of artificial intelligence, its uses cover businesses operating in industries like retail, hospitality, gaming and betting, manufacturing, to name a few.
Data analytics is an inclusive term in the world of data science. It is the analysis of data collected from one or different sources. Trends, patterns, and correlations emerge from the analytics, which remains valuable for business practices.
Firstly, data analytics allows data scientists to gain insights through careful examination of datasets. Management teams use these insights to make informed and strategic business decisions towards future activities. Without data analytics, all data, no matter the size and derived source, is useless.
Secondly, when companies apply data analytics to any big data collected, they can efficiently improve customer service and increase sales turnover. Companies use this strategy to boost competitive performance.
Two Components of Data Analytics
Image Credit: Medium
Processing data analytics needs two critical elements for any data initiative to succeed. These are:
Descriptive analytics
Descriptive analytics is the starting phase. It helps in describing historical and relevant trends found in the data. This analytics aims to answer the question of “what happened?”
It’s both a component and a type of analytics too.
As a component, descriptive analytics measures conventional indicators like Return on Investment (ROI). Such an indicator employed differs from industry to industry. Although descriptive analytics doesn’t make predictions or informed actionable decisions, it summarizes datasets in an expressive and meaningful way.
Advanced analytics
Here, the process uses advanced and innovative tools to extract relevant data, make appropriate predictions, and uncover trends.
Tools used in advanced analytics include, but are not limited to, machine learning and classical statistics. Machine learning tools like natural language conversion/processing, sentiment analysis, and neural networks, and more, generate new insight and info from data.
Advanced analytics focuses on the question of “What if?”
With the increasing popularity and use of large data sets, machine learning skills, and affordable computing power have made it easier to use these two data analytics techniques in different industries.
Four types of Data Analytics
Descriptive analytics
Image Credit: Medium
What the analytics seeks is the answer to the question, “what happened?” Under this technique, summarizing large datasets explains findings to all stakeholders. Descriptive analytics strategies help businesses to track successful performance or failures using KPI (key performance indicators) and metrics like ROI to gauge past performance.
Diagnostic analytics
Diagnostic analytics is the technique that seeks to answer why certain things happened. The process takes information from the descriptive-analytical level and further studies to unravel the root of the problem. Any performance indicator calls for more investigation to know why they got worse or better.
Predictive analytics
The predictive analytics technique focuses on events that would happen in the future. Using historical data, machine learning, and statistical methods, the study of patterns and trends tracks the possibility of reoccurrence. The outcome will be very valuable.
Prescriptive analytics
The presence of this technique offers solutions to the problem. By employing insights gotten from descriptive analytics, we gain inspired decisions. Also, it relies on machine-learning tactics capable of finding patterns in massive data sets.
Conclusion
Data analytics is a critical aspect of data science that data scientists should understand. Its application in everyday activities is almost endless. New business opportunities arise as a result of the continuous generation of data.
Since the 1940s, Industrial Hygiene has been a profession. When my son came home and told me he was going to be an Industrial Hygienist, I thought he was going to clean people’s teeth in an industrial environment. The more I learned, the happier I was, that he has chosen Industrial Hygiene as his career field.
Industrial hygiene is the science of protecting and enhancing the health and safety of people at work and in their communities. Health and safety hazards cover a wide range of chemical, physical, biological, and ergonomic stressors. Those dedicated to anticipating, recognizing, evaluating, and controlling those hazards are known as Industrial Hygienists.
ABIH
In a nutshell, an Industrial Hygienist ensures workers are healthy and safe.
Industrial Hygienists analyze work environments and work procedures. They inspect and monitor workplaces to ensure compliance with regulations on safety, health, and the environment. They do some or all of the following:
Inspect, monitor, and evaluate workplace
environments, equipment, and processes for safety standard compliance
Prepare written reports incorporating their
findings
Create and implement workplace processes that protect
workers
Prepare and provide training programs to educate
employers and workers
Make recommendations and demonstrate the use of
safety equipment
Investigate incidents and accidents to identify the
cause and identify preventative actions
Industry can be a mixed debate for worker safety. Profit margins are high on the list and are in constant scrutiny. Industry creates jobs, provides economic benefits, especially for the local community.
The industries that Industrial Hygiene professionals can work in are Mining, Factories, Pharma, Construction, Wildfire Management, Environmental, Oil and Gas, and Foundries.
Industries that require Industrial Hygienist
Each of these industries has its illness catalysts:
Respirable crystalline silica and inhalable dust,
coal, mineral, welding fumes, smoke, and other particulate aerosols.
Petroleum-based products including semi-volatile
organic and volatile organic compounds, and liquid, vapor, mist and gas
exposures.
Noise and vibration from production, maintenance
tools, and equipment.
Workers have certain health risks:
Carbon Monoxide, Mercury, Beryllium, and Lead Poisoning
Debilitating Hand conditions
Spastic anemia
Silicosis, Lung Cancer and Pulmonary
Tuberculosis
Mental Illness
On the job injuries including falls and slips
Hearing Loss
Electrical Magnetic Frequency Damage
A good Industrial Hygiene and safety program includes
analyzing and monitoring respiratory protection, confined space, hot work,
hearing conservation, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), lock-out/tag-out,
and other health and safety initiatives.
The job market is in high demand for Industrial Hygienists.
Median Pay in the United States: $79,940 Annually ($36.03 per Hour)
Number of Jobs: 88,390 with a growth rate of 4% per year (Does not include self-employed)
Expected employment change, 2016 to 2026, 8,600 more jobs
Bureau of Labor Statistics
The general requirements are the following, although some
employers will require more:
Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Hygiene or
related field of study
Ability to work on a team and individually
Time management and strong organizational skills
Adeptness for the usage of specialized equipment
and monitoring instruments to measure various hazards, such as airborne
contaminants or noise pollution
Ability to teach employees and develop training for
workers
Attention to Detail
Capability to create policies and procedures for
safe practices in the workplace
Ability to travel
Strong written and oral communication skills
Ability to study for, receive and maintain
certifications
An Industrial Hygienist at the very minimum requires a bachelor’s degree.
Masters degrees are not essential, but as competition increases advanced degrees will help compete. However, doctorates are necessary for those that wish to do academic research and to become a specialist. Certification is recommended.
The Industry Profile is interesting as well. 35% work in the Federal Government, 41% work
in State and Local government, 40% work in Management, Scientific and Technical
Consulting Services and 16% work in the Management of Companies and
Enterprises. The states with the highest
percentage of jobs are Texas, California, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York.
Most of the Industrial Hygienists I have met are very happy with their job. They do not do the same thing every day, and they enjoy helping workers stay safe. In general, they are very intelligent and compassionate and are extremely concerned about preventing the workers in their charge from getting sick.
If you are trying to figure out what career field, I highly suggest investigating this career field.
DynaGrace Enterprises today announced that they are expanding their product line to include state-of-the-art technology to monitor air quality. The Nanozen DustCount 8899, a real-time, wearable, respirable dust monitor detects air particulates down to a microscopic level in real-time.
OSHA has recently changed the Respirable Crystalline Silica Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL) to 50 mg/m3 for 8 hours and the Action Limit to 25 mg/m3.
Employers need to evaluate and control the exposure limit for their employees.
One way to do that is to have a worker wear the DustCount, for 8 hours and obtain the Total Weight Average (TWA). The rugged DustCount fits into a vest pocket or clips on a belt. The results can be analyzed real-time and downloaded at the end of the shift. The filter is then sent to an AIHA approved lab to be analyzed for silica levels.
“A problem in the workforce is getting the worker to wear a mask while working in environments heavily laden with dust. The respirator masks are hot and uncomfortable and lower productivity in an industrial environment,” stated Linda Rawson, President, and CEO of DynaGrace Enterprises. “Determining what work processes have high exposure and requiring the worker to wear the mask only during those periods is a win-win scenario for both the employer and the worker.”
DynaGrace Enterprises accepted the opportunistic challenge from Nanozen because of their passion for Air Quality and the safety of the industrial worker.
Products, like the Nanozen DustCount 8899, are making a difference. In 2017 OSHA reported 45,800 fewer nonfatal injury and illness cases compared to the 2016 statistics reported by the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII). The CDC age-adjusted statistics report that the death rate for Silicosis during the period of 2005-2014, went from 1.65 Male, .03 Female, per million in 2005 down to .69 Male, .01 Female in 2014. The statistics should only get better because of the new OSHA standard.
Linda Rawson passionately says “Let’s face it. We don’t want anybody years from now spitting a piece of their lung on the sidewalk from silicosis.”
Customers can learn more about DynaGrace Enterprises by visiting the company’s website at DynaGrace.com or by calling the company directly at 888-676-0058. DynaGrace Enterprises will be at the AIHA conference in the Nanozen booth #1502.
The 21st century has experienced a boom, all thanks to the advancement in technology. The internet has reduced advertising costs on radio, television and other visual platforms by half.
Using Social Media
Social media platforms have gained momentum in the field of advertising, and they have become one of the sought-after tools by marketing maestros. Social media has helped businesses spread their tentacles via digital means. As a business owner, if you have not tapped into this means of marketing, it, means you have been living in a cave. You need to utilize these platforms to create awareness for your brand.
Social media improves your brand awareness
When it comes to brand awareness, the importance of social media is critical. Social media ranks very high when it comes to digital marketing. If you get your business on social media platforms, it makes your business more visible to your target audience thereby increasing brand awareness. If you go the extra mile to boost your business presence online on different platforms, it will skyrocket the recognition of your brand. Surveys show that about 90% of marketers who spent a couple of hours engaging in marketing on their business pages on social media experienced great turnout. No doubts, having a business profile for your brand will be the best decision you ever made in a career.
Social media is pocket-friendly
Social media will cut back on a lot of costs associated with advertising. It is almost free. All you must do is to create an account by signing up on the social media forum which is usually free. If you want to take things to the next level, you may decide to pay for advertising on these platforms. It is advisable to start out by paying little amounts of money to see if the paid adverts convert into sales. It is always advisable to minimize cost for a maximum profit so that you can get a healthy ROI.
Social media is the perfect tool for engaging your audience. For business owners who are always active on social media, customer interaction is always top notch, and their satisfaction is guaranteed. Customers need to be sure they are not dealing with unscrupulous individuals before they make purchases, by engaging with your potential clients, you will alleviate any form of lack of trust or worry associated with shopping online.
In addition to the above benefits of using social media; you can get high traffic. However, these are some of the things you shouldn’t do in your business’ cyberspace.
What not to do
Do not rush the process
In the bid to get more return on investments, business owners skip many vital aspects of social media marketing. It is essential to learn the ropes.
Do not lie
Do not mislead your audience. Avoid living a fake life on your social media page to improve awareness.
Do not be ignorant
Avoid being nonchalant or a snub. It is important to let your audience have a feel of your warm personality. In addition to the things, you shouldn’t do avoid vulgarity or use of profane words. Do not divulge too much.
Website design is one of the most dynamic concepts in the digital world. As the year progresses, there is an increase in the technical challenges web designers face.
Made in Canva by Machelle L.
The Art of Web Designing
However, these challenges have been better with the advent of more creativity into the art of web designing. This creativity has given rise to more innovative websites. Creating a more user-friendly interface, compatible with any digital device, high aesthetics and still compliant with corporate needs.
2017 witnessed lots of innovation about web designing and anticipates that more creativity will trend in the year 2018. Some of them have already begun manifesting the websites that have fantastic mobile functionalities. Some others are still in the process. The following are remarkable trends to grace the web designing landscape in the year 2018:
Animation, Motion graphics
In the year 2018, this will be one of the significant changes that we will experience. An animation is believed to make a lasting impression just as the famous quote says, ’a picture is worth a thousand words.’
Animations in web pages include particle backgrounds, animated thumbnails images, as well as virtual or augmented realities. These motion graphics are of a JavaScript design to move naturally in the web background without delay while loading. Some of them are used in the social media for different purposes already.
Web schemes with superb colors
Due to the advent of computer monitors and device screens with improved picture quality, web designers are becoming bolder in their color selections. Being bolder has led to websites with supersaturated colors, dominant shades, contrasting colors yet producing beautiful blends. These varieties ensure that web pages are looking good. This sort of improvement is to attract visitors’ attention and sell the brand or the idea on the websites. Web designers will go beyond the conventional, really think out of the box for high colors in 2018.
Asymmetric or Broken Layouts
Made in Canva by Machelle L.
Asymmetric Layouts were first introduced in 2017 but will attract more attention in the web designing space in 2018. It is a shift from the conventional grid-based web layouts. Its attracting factor is that it provides a unique aesthetic experience for a web page visitor. Many brands may still want to stick to the conventional layouts because they consider this asymmetry a luxury. Others, especially more prominent companies, may find it a perfect means to sell their brand to the public.
Flexible fonts
The fonts of a web page are more than just a visual tool. It also plays a huge role in creating a lasting impression and provoking an emotional response. Also, fonts serve as a medium of communication on any website. In 2018 there will be devices with outstanding resolutions and screen characters that get sharper. There will also be a concomitant rise in different fonts used in web pages. This trend aims at creating a better user experience, ensuring that web users aren’t bored being on your websites.
Active gradients
In more recent times, developers are gradually adopting gradients for their web designs. An active gradient is already a trend that has come to stay as they are progressively replacing the flat designs. They are often used to make images on a web page more captivating with colors of various dimensions. Most web designers used this gradient as an alternative when there are a few images. These alternatives are usually conspicuous and rich in color.
Priority of mobile devices
Websites designed in the year 2018 will have mobile devices that will have the utmost priority. Expect that Google will rank websites on mobile compatibility and user-friendly interface. Since almost everyone has a smartphone, the prioritization of mobile devices by web designers will be a priority. These devices will also trigger other mobile-friendly initiatives tools and apps shifting from desktops in 2018.
The concept of web designing is an ever-changing one that necessitates severe changes in our web designing approach. These trends trigger the need for new skills, newer ideas, and a different approach.
