{"id":15722,"date":"2026-09-16T10:14:42","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T15:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/?p=15722"},"modified":"2026-09-16T10:15:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T15:15:14","slug":"how-can-my-business-use-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/how-can-my-business-use-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Things AI Can Do That Your Current Software Can’t"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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If you run IT, you’ve probably been asked “What’s our AI strategy?” at least once this year. Maybe more than once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It feels like every company is rushing to do something with AI. But most of them are approaching it from the wrong direction. They start with the technology. What can we build? A chatbot? A copilot? Or they look at what the AI vendors are selling, pick something that sounds useful, and try to find a place for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s not a terrible approach. But it leads to a lot of the same, generic use cases. Why? Because the project started with the tool instead of the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s a better question: What can AI do that we can’t do today? What can it do that’s impossible, or really painful, with the software, code, and processes we already have?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Answer that, and you’ll have a much easier time coming up with ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, the answers to those questions vary by business. That being said, here are 10 different answers that could apply to a variety of organizations. At the end of each one, I’ll tell you the easiest way to try it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Understand unstructured data<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Most of the information that comes into your business isn’t structured. I’m talking about things like customer emails, PDF purchase orders, scanned packing slips with notes written on them, or even spreadsheets where every customer uses a different layout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Software has never been able to do much with any of that. Usually, you need a person to read each one and type it into the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI can read all of it…and understand it. For instance, suppose a customer writes, “Send us our usual plus 50 more of the widgets from February, the ones in the box with the red logo on it.” Today, someone has to figure out who “us” is, what “our usual” means, and which SKU comes in a box with a red logo. AI can look up the customer, find their usual order, match the SKU, and draft the order for someone to approve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Illustration:
Illustration. The email comes in on the left. The draft order on the right is what a person approves before anything ships.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Try this first:<\/strong> Start with the most common piece of unstructured data you deal with. For instance, suppose you receive vendor invoices every day. But, no two vendors format them the same way, so someone in AP is stuck manually entering data. Let AI read each invoice and fill in the entry, and have that person check it before it’s saved. After a month, you’ll know how often the AI got it right and which vendors trip it up. That tells you whether or not this is an area worth automating with AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Answer “What’s going on with order 12345?” in one place<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Here’s a question that takes 15 minutes to answer in a lot of companies: “What’s going on with order 12345?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Someone checks the order system and sees the order is on hold. They open the credit system to find out why. Then the warehouse system, then the carrier’s website. If they still don’t have the whole story, they log into the CRM to see if the customer already called. Fifteen minutes and six different screens later, they have half an answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI can pull from all of those systems at once and write one answer: “Order 12345 is on credit hold. The customer is $12,400 over their limit, and their last payment was 52 days ago. The shipment is staged and ready to go. I’d suggest contacting AR about a limit increase, or asking the customer for a partial payment to release the hold.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Illustration:
Illustration. Today someone opens the six screens on the left. AI reads all six and writes the answer on the right.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Of course, you could pull data from different systems together without AI. The difference is that AI can read all of it together and explain what it means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Try this first:<\/strong> Start in one area, for instance, orders on hold. They take the most digging, and the answer is spread across two or three systems. Give AI read-only access to those and have it write one paragraph per held order, ending with what it recommends. Keep it read-only until you trust it. If your team stops opening five screens to answer “Why is this on hold?”, it’s working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Let anyone ask the database a question, then ask a follow-up<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

How many times a day does someone ask IT for data? Maybe a sales rep needs an order status. Or, the CFO has a question on Sunday night when nobody’s around to run a report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With AI, they can type the question and get the answer from the database. They don’t need to know SQL, and they don’t need to open a ticket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the best parts of this approach is that users can have conversations with their data. “Show me my top 10 customers by revenue.” “Now just manufacturing.” “Compare that to last quarter.” “Write a summary for my boss.” Each question builds on the last one. Traditional reports can’t do that. Every question starts over with a new filter or a new report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Try this first:<\/strong> Pick the person who asks you for reports the most, and give them access to the one database those reports come from. Before you hand it over, spend an hour describing your tables and fields. The answers are only as good as those descriptions. Then leave them alone with it for two weeks and read the questions they asked. Some will be questions nobody ever asked before. That list tells you what to build next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to see what this looks like? Here’s a video of it in action:<\/p>\n\n\n\n