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There are several possible priorities to consider when optimizing a workforce, like customer experience, employee experience, and cost savings. Because it is impossible to maximize all three at the same time, it is important to understand each of these dimensions, including their benefits and tradeoffs, in order to strike the right balance for your company.

Learning about the ways AI-based forecasting can improve the world today is certainly a worthwhile investment of time, particularly if your business deals with fluctuating demand. AI is peeking into the future in all sorts of markets – and if there is a prediction to be made, chances are, AI will make it more accurately than a human can.

External data covers factors that affect demand but that are not directly related to your operations and that you typically have no influence on. These are factors like weather, economic conditions, holidays, or, like we have witnessed over the past year, a global pandemic.

For service businesses, there are few constants when it comes to forecasting workload because everything depends on seemingly unpredictable customer flow. The result is scheduling based on one-dimensional historical views, hoping for a repeat of customer flow. Not only is this method ineffective, it is also inefficient.

While there are uncountable applications for AI, demand prediction for service-oriented businesses is providing a noticeable edge to those businesses that are utilizing the power of artificial intelligence.

Can you imagine going back to paper calendars and landlines? Technology has advanced so much that these cumbersome business practices seem almost laughable. A similar revolution is now emerging for employee scheduling.

Workload demand prediction and employee scheduling utilizing applied AI has just emerged in recent years. The capability to predict demand and assign schedules that meet this demand is nearly an impossible task for a human. However, employing software to aid in the process makes this challenge manageable.

2020 was an emotionally taxing year for all of us. Whether your employees retained full time employment, experienced periods of furlough, or were laid off completely, the entire work culture changed. Just as the initial adjustment to working from home was stressful, returning to the office will also be a challenging adjustment.

You are aware that your business has chronic periods of being short staffed. Your employees are often rushed to assist customers at hand during peak hours, and customers frequently turn impatient due to long wait times or poor service. Now what? How do you go about fixing understaffing issues in a systematic, effective way without increasing the number of employees?

Often, understaffing is not a conscious decision by management but is instead caused by an inability to predict the peaks and valleys of demand. Staffing to the average customer flow does not account for sporadic peaks in demand. Stores that have fluctuating rush periods may inadvertently become understaffed during these sudden demand peaks.