Visual Analytics and Computer Vision Trends for Enterprise CXOs      

Be it for improved decision-making or viewing the customer’s journey, enterprise CXOs have often relied on visualization tools to “make sense” of business data. CXOs have leveraged interactive dashboards to:

· Identify market trends.

· Predict business challenges.

· Discover business opportunities.

While CXOs have used visualization tools to get answers to “what” questions, AI-powered visual analytics helps them understand the “why” element. Along with visualization, visual analytics integrates data analysis and human elements to gain insights from data.

Similarly, for CXOs, AI-powered computer vision (CV) holds enormous potential in addressing operational challenges like:

· Workplace safety

· Image processing

· Monitoring equipment in manufacturing facilities

Let’s examine these technologies, their business applications, and how AV technology can power them.

Understanding Visual Analytics – and its Applications

By definition, visual analytics represents the integration of data visualization and analytics to understand complex datasets in any organization. While data visualization simplifies complex data for business users, visual analytics goes a step forward by enabling CXOs to extract relevant data-driven insights and trends.

While data analytics simply focuses on the user’s analytical capabilities to gain insights, visual analytics focuses on the human eye’s visual perceptions to interpret data. Besides, visual analytics tools leverage AI and machine learning to analyze data from multiple datasets and offer relevant recommendations.

How is visual analytics beneficial to enterprise CXOs and what’s the relevance today? Here are some of its benefits:

· Faster accurate data exploration and analysis for improved decision-making.

· Early detection of industry and business trends and opportunities, thus providing a competitive advantage.

· Democratization of data analytics in any organization, thus involving more stakeholders and creating a data-driven culture.

· Forecasting of future industry trends and outcomes based on historical data patterns.

How can companies leverage visual analytics? Here are some real-life applications:

1. Sales and marketing

In the sales and marketing function, visual analytics can boost performance by presenting relevant data to stakeholders. For instance, sales managers can visualize sales-related data to:

· Understand the customer behaviour.

· Identify sales opportunities to boost revenue.

· Improve sales forecasting.

Similarly, in marketing, visual analytics can help marketers identify the current stage of the customer’s journey – and target them with the right marketing message. Using visual analytics, digital marketers can also improve their ROI from marketing campaigns and promotions.

2. Customer analytics

Along with marketing, visual analytics can elevate customer analytics through real-time insights into their buying preferences, brand sentiments, and responses to marketing initiatives. With visual analytics, companies can:

· Build accurate customer segments and profiles.

· Analyze their purchase behaviours.

· Understand how customers engage on social media platforms.

For instance, banks and financial companies can leverage visual analytics to deliver a personalized customer experience.

3. Business intelligence (BI)

Companies are also utilizing visual analytics in BI applications to visualize their KPIs and data trends. Using interactive dashboards and reports, business executives can monitor business performance and identify growth opportunities. Similarly, IT managers can leverage visual analytics to identify emerging technologies and unutilized systems and applications.

Understanding Computer Vision – and its Applications

Enabled by AI and machine learning technology, computer vision (CV) technology enables machines to identify images and visuals with utmost accuracy. Primarily, CV technology is used for facial recognition and object identification. Effectively, with computer vision, computers can derive meaningful insights from a variety of visual objects including images and videos.

Before the advent of computer vision, organizations relied mainly on human resources to monitor objects, which was both error-prone and time-consuming. For instance, developers working on a facial recognition system had to “manually” label images with data points (for instance, to mark the distance between the eyes). This labour-intensive task is no longer required.

How is computer vision beneficial to enterprise CXOs and how are they relevant in today’s business environment? Here are some of its benefits:

· Automates human (or manual) tasks, thus saving time and improving accuracy.

· Elevates workforce safety in hazardous environments through continuous surveillance of workers and security threats.

· Personalization of retail products by monitoring customer shopping behaviour and interests.

· Enables machines to self-learn from visual data, thus reducing the time and costs involved in “training” an AI-powered model.

How can companies leverage computer vision? Here are some real-life applications:

1. Autonomous vehicles

Self-driving (or autonomous) vehicles can utilize CV systems to identify real-time objects or people including other vehicles, pedestrians, traffic signals, and road signs.

In semi-autonomous vehicles, CV systems are being used to monitor drivers for any signs of fatigue or distraction. Additionally, a CV-enabled navigation system can alert drivers of any road danger – and even direct them on the right route.

2. Healthcare

Among the leading industries deploying CV systems, medical practitioners can use CV-enabled medical imaging to visualize the patient’s anatomy and make accurate diagnoses. CV solutions can extract visual insights from a variety of resources like:

· Tumor scans

· X-ray reports

· Medical reports

· MRI scans

3. Retail

In the retail sector, in-store CV systems can help retailers identify areas of customer interest and high-traffic sections. This helps them optimize the store layout for customer convenience with efficient product placements. CV-enabled surveillance systems can monitor any suspicious activity like shoplifting within store facilities.

Additionally, CV-enabled retail warehouses can monitor inventory levels to prevent overstocking or understocking. Computer vision is also enabling cashier-less retail stores by automating the shopper’s checkout process.

In summary

There’s little doubt that deep learning technologies like AI are making a profound impact across industries and business applications. Among the latest trends, the use of AI in the AV technology domain is increasing. For instance, CV technology can improve image quality and audio processing in AV systems such as video conferencing. Similarly, CV-enabled algorithms can create “intelligent” video surveillance through connected AV systems.

As an AV integrator, Resurgent recognizes the relevance of AI-enabled technologies like visual analytics and computer vision for today’s business needs. With our AI and AV integration skills, we can help you maximize the capabilities of both these technologies.

If you want to know more, book a consultation with us today.