Blockchain technology shows promise in several key sectors. While it’s far from a cure-all, some key aspects could aid businesses in their process improvement strategies. Cutting waste and inefficiencies from business processes remains a challenge — one that blockchain technology could address. Below are some cost reduction examples blockchain technology could work to improve.

Sectors from real estate to charitable giving have begun to implement blockchain technology to innovate and compete in a fast-changing market. One field which could greatly benefit from blockchain is B2B. Process improvement and cost reduction brought on by the technology could increase profits and boost the industry to new heights.

B2B process improvement strategies

Business-to-business companies often deal with unnecessary complications. The behemoths of the industry such as Alibaba still use antiquated technology to handle their processes. Wide adoption of blockchain technology in the industry could improve processes and reduce costs for enterprises. As global commerce increases, the complexity and number of actors increases.

Businesses can benefit from implementing innovative solutions to increase their competitive advantage. One of many process improvement strategies is to save time and streamline international shipments. Some other cost reduction examples include automation and supply chain improvements. When a buyer orders a product, the transaction can take weeks to finalize. The usual intermediaries slow the process. Lawyers, red tape, logistics agents, and banks can delay a transaction unnecessarily.

Many B2B companies still use electronic data interchange technology or EDI (Electronic Data Interchange). According to a 2015 eft survey, B2B business owners and stakeholders believe that EDI is outdated and should be replaced by better technology. Here are a few process improvement strategies blockchain could address.

Eliminate expensive third parties

Smart contracts enable sellers and buyers to scrap expensive third parties and automate business processes. Blockchain smart contracts are transparent features that automatically bind all the parties involved. The smart contract is a set of cryptographic codes which only verified participants can access.

Once the data the participants give correlates with the existing data, it automatically executes. This is one of the biggest cost reduction examples as I’ll mention below. No one can alter the data once it’s on the chain. This makes it immutable, and since blockchain is a distributed ledger, the smart contract has no single point of failure. Even if one node goes down, the system can still operate. 90 percent of B2B stakeholders have realized the benefits of smart contracts and there’s no going back.

Automate data processing

Blockchain processes data in real-time, making it one of the best process improvement strategies for B2B companies. For instance, sellers will be able to access data on their e-commerce portal and see as the numbers add up. This will help sellers make decisions based on the information instead of waiting for weeks before calculating the data before making decisions. Blockchain will reduce the time lag, therefore, sellers will be able to carry out other tasks without delay.

Improve supply chain

Aside from the other process improvement strategies, smart contracts will provide for B2B companies another important benefit of blockchain is supply chain enhancement. Blockchains are a chain of distributed ledgers that process data autonomously. This means that for B2B, sellers can depend on blockchain technology to handle unstructured data. Where traditional supply chain fails in processing data efficiently, blockchain will thrive without error.

Increase transparency among B2B partners

Blockchains can record and store information in a supply chain. All the parties involved can access the data making it easier to exchange documents between business partners.

One of the drags on the global economy is the fact that companies cannot fully trust one another. Blockchain technology sets up a trustless environment improving relationships between enterprises and potentially growing the global economy. Fewer fraudulent transactions or non-payment will increase profit and serve as one more of the powerful cost reduction examples blockchain technology can offer the B2B firms. Blockchain ensures shared visibility like never before.

Adjust to a changing market

Antiquated EDI technology doesn’t do well with big data supply chains. Due to changing market realities and consumer habits, B2B companies will have to adjust their processes. About half of B2B buyers are millennials and as such B2B companies expecting the manual process of placing fax orders, and handling paper contracts may be asking for too much from millennials. Current consumers want to place orders via B2B e-commerce portals and have their products delivered to them. Blockchain could replace EDI as the logistics technology of choice.

While blockchain seems like the most suitable technology to replace EDI, some remain skeptical. Many pundits predict that blockchain will augment EDI and not replace it. Blockchain can aid B2B companies in their process improvement strategies.

Cost reduction examples

As I mentioned above, blockchain tech can play a role in process improvement strategies for B2B companies. Eliminating intermediaries, supply chain automation, and an improved supply chain are also good cost reduction examples. But how can blockchain technology actually do this?

Reducing fees

One intermediary is the bank. Once there’s no bank involved, sellers will be able to save the percentage that would have gone to the banks involved in payments. According to Accenture, and McLagan, blockchain will save money for B2B partners by reducing or completely eliminating financial institutions fees for B2B transactions. B2B partners can also save the money that would have gone to lawyers. Cutting intermediaries also makes transactions fast, once the seller makes a payment, the buyer receives it immediately.

Automated supply chain

When data processing on supply chains becomes more accurate and immediate, one should expect that it will reduce expenses for B2B sellers. With greater automation, fewer employees are necessary. Human error can also drive up costs Why? Well, because for every human error in data analysis, the business owner has to correct it or pay for it. For instance, if a buyer places an order of 50 million copies of a product and during the logistics and product delivery there’s an error such that they send more than 50 million copies to the buyer, the seller will eventually pay for it.

But think of a scenario where products are labeled on the seller’s supply chain using blockchain technology, and the physical products must correspond to the labeled products on the supply chain then one can assume that it’ll be almost impossible to make an error.

Blockchain integration

The time has come for B2B companies to scale up and adopt blockchain technology. Many big brands such as Amazon, IBM, Alibaba, are pouring money into blockchain development. As of last year, 57 percent of B2B leaders noted that they need to integrate e-commerce with backend technology that will make B2B business processes seamless. While blockchain technology still appears too complex for B2B sellers, some blockchain experts have developed blockchain-as-a-Service for business owners, so that B2B executives can easily integrate blockchain API into their business.

Why wait when you can develop your B2B company on blockchain? As a startup, developing your B2B brand on blockchain from the beginning may factor into your process improvement strategy. Although there are not many B2B brands that are already using blockchain technology, it will be much worse to be miss out on a competitive advantage as more B2B companies.

Blockchain and artificial intelligence are driving technological innovation worldwide and both have profound implications for the future of business as well as our personal data. How can the two technologies merge? I’ll discuss the opportunities which could arise from decentralized AI.

Before we look at the possible merging of blockchain and AI into decentralized AI, let’s look at the two separately. Let’s look at the benefits of Artificial Intelligence and blockchain.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a field in computer science dedicated to creating intelligent machines. Also known as machine learning, AI gives machines skills traditionally reserved to humans. Problem solving, speech recognition, planning, and learning are among them.

Meanwhile, blockchain is a decentralized technology which is a global network of computers. A robust platform allows blocks of similar information to be stored over the network.
PwC predicts that by 2030 AI will add up to $15.7 trillion to the world economy, and as a result, global GDP will rise by 14%. According to Gartner’s prediction, business value added by blockchain technology will increase to $3.1 trillion by the same year. Currently, the cryptocurrency sector makes the most use of blockchain tech. So, is the integration of blockchain and AI possible? Can both merge into one and enter other sectors? Actually, that’s already happening and some businesses are beginning to see the potential of integrating blockchain and AI.

Advantages of blockchain technology

Here are some of the advantages of blockchain technology:

Blockchain is decentralized. It allows data to be shared without a central unit. This keeps transactions on a blockchain verifiable and processable independent of a central force.
Blockchain is durable and consistent due to its decentralized nature. It can resist malicious attacks on its systems because it does not have a central point vulnerable to attack.
Information, timelines, and authenticity supplied by blockchain technology are all accurate.

Benefits of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI, or machine intelligence, has a lower error rate compared to humans when coding. As a result, AI offers a greater level of accuracy, speed and precision.

AI is totally logical as it has no emotions and thus makes error-free rational decisions.
Machines don’t get tired and can thrive in hazardous conditions. This enables them to carry out dangerous tasks, such as space exploration, or even mining.
Trusting AI with data analysis is the best decision any company can make. AI can easily calculate unstructured data, and give results in real-time, ensuring accuracy in data analytics.

Previous collaboration between blockchain and AI

There’s been notable integration between AI and blockchain. Some examples of this include the Singularity.Net blockchain and AI program, which was created to enhance smart contract testing. Supply chain firm, Nahame has also incorporated blockchain technology and AI to help companies with auditing. There are some plans by a peer-to-peer car rental company, which have been made public, to produce a fleet of self driving cars on blockchain technology.

Decentralized AI – where AI and blockchain could intersect

The best way to use the two of the biggest technologies out there today is by looking to capitalize on one’s strength to aid the other.

Data protection

Artificial intelligence largely depends on our data and uses it to improve itself through machine learning. What’s particularly relevant to AI is the gathering of data about human interactions and other details. Blockchain is a technology that allows encryption of data storage on a decentralized system, and it runs a totally secured and protected database only authorized users can access. So when we integrate blockchain and AI, it means we have a protected decentralized AI system for sensitive data such as financial or even medical data. Therefore, blockchain technology is a great security advantage.

Let’s take a look at Spotify – it uses users’ data to recommend music based on their recent searches and preferences. Most of the time we aren’t concerned about the information as it isn’t particularly sensitive. However, when it comes to our sensitive information stored in the cloud of a company, we would be more concerned about privacy and the guarantee of that privacy.

Ensuring security

As a centralized system running on a single processor, hackers or malware can infiltrate an AI system and alter its instructions. With blockchain though, before any information is accepted and processed on a blockchain platform, it must go through several nodes or phases of the network on the system. It becomes more difficult to hack any blockchain-based technology when it has more nodes on its network. Although not impossible, it would be far more difficult to hack a blockchain-based, decentralized AI platform.

Trustworthiness

There is greater trust in the system. In order to have credibility, a system must be trustworthy. Blockchain is a more transparent technology than a closed AI system. Blockchains protect data through encryption — only authorized users can access it. This makes it impossible for unauthorized parties to view anything.

In the case of blockchain application in the healthcare sector, patients don’t want their medical information to be accessible to any unauthorized viewers. Medical information remains encrypted to prevent unauthorized third parties from accessing it. Keeping medical information on a blockchain would also allow healthcare providers to easily access patients’ files so they can provide medical aid in case of an emergency. Adding increased performance AI will bring storage to the blockchain by making it easier to access unstructured data.

Benefits of Artificial Intelligence & blockchain in the long run

There are many benefits businesses can gain from integrating blockchain with AI. Porsche automobile in partnership with XAIN AG is already working on decentralized AI applications in its advanced vehicles. JD.com, a leader in developing AI-based applications, has already started using this integration to build decentralized business applications. So it’s worth considering blockchain and AI as integrated technology. It’s not a problem if you already use blockchain or just AI in your business. You can integrate either technology through your existing website API.
Here are some benefits of Artificial Intelligence merging with blockchain:

Decentralized Intelligence

This is an obvious result of the technology integration. Blockchain is a decentralized system while AI is an intelligent system. It would enable business organizations to set up a blockchain-based architecture that allows a combination of AI design. This could be a peer-to-peer connection that has an image recognition feature or language processing.

Energy saving and cost efficient IT architecture

A 2016 report from Deloitte estimated that the annual cost of authenticating transactions on a blockchain is $600 million, most of which goes into mining operations. An AI-integrated blockchain will help organizations reduce their energy consumption. Since AI can predict and speedily calculate data, it would also make it possible for cryptocurrency miners to know when they are performing a less important transaction. This would also allow enterprises to execute transactions faster.

In fact, as AI becomes more developed, and after the integration of AI and blockchain technology becomes more common, AI may take over the mining process on blockchains. Given the fact that AI learns and adapts to its environment, combined with blockchain, there’s no doubt that it will learn the process and the architecture of the blockchain network.

Flexible AI

AI integration with blockchain will pave the way for the development of an artificial general intelligence (AGI) platform. The blockchain model can create a distributed specimen for the development of an AGI.

The integration of blockchain and AI has yet to take off fully. Combining the two technologies into decentralized AI has deep potential to use data in novel ways. A successful integration of both technologies will allow quicker and smoother data management, verification of transactions, identification of illegitimate documents, etc. Therefore, if you’re contemplating the integration of both technologies for your business, don’t hesitate, do it!