The continued advancement of artificial intelligence is transforming the modern business landscape. Today, many executives find themselves at a crossroads, contemplating whether or not to fully embrace AI technology and integrate it into their existing operations as soon as possible.Â
Meanwhile, the challenge for business leaders already convinced of AI’s advantages is finding enough qualified workers to accelerate their digital transformation initiatives. A 2023 Statista report found that over 54% of companies are dealing with tech skills shortages, hindering their ability to advance AI projects.
By working with an outsourcing provider, you can address the tech skills gap, connect with nearshore and offshore professionals with specialized expertise, and finally get your AI projects off the ground.
What Is Artificial Intelligence?
Before we discuss how outsourcing can help you develop and execute your AI initiatives, let’s start with a quick rundown of AI technology and how it works.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the branch of computer science that involves designing, creating, and developing machines and software that simulate human intelligence to perform certain functions. For example, AI tools may answer common questions, generate images, create text content, write code, and more.
AI can have a wide range of applications in business, from improving user experiences to helping executives make more informed decisions. Using machine learning and deep learning techniques, AI software can absorb and sift through mountains of unstructured data and use these to perform specific tasks.
Why Outsource Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Solutions
As mentioned in previous sections, more organizations are embracing AI technology. Industry experts predict the global AI market value will reach $407 billion by 2027, skyrocketing at an annual growth rate of 36.2%.
A Forbes study reported that most business leaders (64%) are confident that AI can significantly enhance their operational processes, improving efficiency and productivity. However, the problem remains that not enough workers have the specialized knowledge and skills to develop and operate AI technologies.
The AI Conundrum: The C-Suite-Employee Expectation Mismatch
According to a 2023 survey, there is a significant mismatch between what businesses want to achieve with AI and how many workers understand and can handle what is required of them. Most C-suites (71%) consider AI implementation a top priority for their organizations, and 62% are concerned that their AI initiatives are not progressing fast enough.Â
Meanwhile, 54% of employees say they don’t understand how their company integrates artificial intelligence into their daily operations, and 75% want leaders to be more transparent about how the tech is used.
Outsourcing AI support teams can offer a practical compromise for business leaders navigating this predicament, accelerating their AI projects and increasing competitiveness. At the same time, these outsourced professionals can work closely with your in-house team, helping them learn and understand how to operate these new technologies.
Building Your Ideal AI Support Team: What Roles Should You Outsource?
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Now that you understand how outsourcing can help you facilitate your AI initiatives, the next step is identifying which roles you should outsource to get the job done. Here are the specialized functions you can delegate to qualified nearshore and offshore professionals:
Data Labeling and Annotation Specialists
Before building effective AI learning models, you must have enough structured data to train the software. Artificial intelligence tools rely on well-organized data sets to perform specific functions like replying to customer queries, creating engaging written content, or generating new images.Â
Data labeling and annotation specialists organize, classify, and categorize unstructured data to ensure that AI models perform effectively. After these professionals have attached relevant labels and tags to raw data, generative AI software can use computer vision to “study” existing pictures and videos and generate new images.Â
Meanwhile, chatbots and other conversational AI tools utilize natural language processing (NLP) to sift through written text and generate content based on specific queries or prompts.
Python Developers
Python is a highly advanced programming language leveraged for various applications, including web development, machine learning, software testing, and system scripting. According to recent studies, the vast majority of developers (85%) use Python in their software and AI projects.
With Python’s vast library of pre-combined codes, developers can fast-track software, web, and AI application projects, helping organizations facilitate efficient digital transformation. In the face of widespread tech skills shortages, outsourcing Python development can give businesses a significant competitive edge.
AI Architects
Working closely with your Python developers, IT teams, and machine learning (ML) engineers, AI architects design and execute different types of artificial intelligence systems. They assess your existing processes, identify ways to integrate AI and ML solutions into your systems and devise strategies to optimize them.
Additionally, the trustworthiness of AI continues to be a pressing concern for many business leaders. Even among those willing to embrace artificial intelligence solutions, many remain more worried (47%) than excited (15%).Â
Thankfully, AI architects address this concern through exhaustive testing and validation. They continually examine and evaluate your AI and machine learning model to determine whether it accurately and efficiently performs its designed function.
Prompt Engineers
Businesses must know what questions to ask (and how) to gain relevant and accurate results from generative and large language models. This is where an outsourced prompt engineer can come in handy.
Prompt engineers design instructions or “prompts” for AI software, aiming to communicate queries effectively and guide the model toward a desired outcome. Typically working as part of a larger AI development team, they help accelerate digital transformation initiatives by refining prompts, testing AI tools, and performing quality control.
Tech Support and Help Desk
Once you’ve successfully developed and implemented artificial intelligence technology into your daily operations, you’ll need to elevate your tech support functions to keep pace with this significant change. According to a Gartner study, 91% of companies are eager to integrate AI into their customer service operations.
As AI technology becomes more widespread, technical support and help desk specialists must be there to guide customers through this shift. When buyers experience problems with AI-powered products or features, support agents can help resolve these issues, fostering a more seamless user experience.
AI Development Back-Office Support Teams
Focusing only on highly specialized roles is insufficient when developing your AI projects. The truth is that effective digital transformation is a team effort. Beyond hiring developers and engineers, you must also invest in crucial back-office support roles to help your AI team perform as efficiently as possible.
For instance, you may think your accounting department has nothing to do with your artificial intelligence projects. However, making one mistake while balancing the books can impact the funding of your digital transformation initiatives, causing bottlenecks or delays in AI implementation and integration.
Improper data entry can have ripple effects on your data sets, tarnishing the accuracy of your AI models’ generated content. Neglecting payroll management can lower the morale of your core development team and affect the quality of their work.
The point is that optimizing your back-office functions can lead all aspects of your operations to run smoothly, including your AI development projects. By outsourcing these crucial administrative and support roles, you can strengthen your AI initiatives and lighten the load of your core team.
Accelerate Your Artificial Intelligence Projects This 2024
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Embrace the latest innovations and start advancing your AI initiatives as early as today. The right outsourcing partner can revolutionize your processes and assist you in finding strategic ways to implement new technologies into your operations.
SuperStaff offers a wide range of outsourcing solutions to help you turn your AI ideas into reality. From specialized roles like software development to support functions like data entry, we are equipped with a qualified workforce to fill the gaps in your operational strategy.
Contact us today to learn more about our BPO and KPO services!
