Economics Analysis and Decision Making of AI in the Workplace

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This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace, drawing on concepts from business and economics. It explores the application of AI, its ethical implications, and its impact on decision-making processes. The essay examines the evolution of AI, from assisted to autonomous intelligence, and discusses the ethical concerns surrounding privacy, super-intelligence, and job displacement. Furthermore, it highlights the role of AI in streamlining workplace tasks, improving HR functions, and enhancing employee experiences through tools like chatbots. The analysis includes real-world examples of AI implementation, such as the use of AI in law firms to automate contract review. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of understanding AI's influence on business growth and the need to address ethical considerations. This assignment provides a detailed overview of AI's multifaceted role in the modern business environment.
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Running Head: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 1
Economics Analysis and Decision Making of artificial Intelligence in the Workplace and Its
Central Ethical Issues
Name
Institution
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 2
Abstract
Over the course of this semester, we have had an opportunity to learn about some of the
most important concepts in business and economics. Fundamentally, the course introduced us to
the concept of economic analysis, decision making, and the use of artificial intelligence in the
workplace. As regards to the idea of artificial intelligence in the workplace, the course focus
mainly on the key and central ethical issues that surround their use and implementation in the
work environment. Aside from these key concepts, the course was a broad one, and therefore
provided the learners with an opportunity to gain knowledge on other areas. Thus, this paper is
going to provide a detailed overview of what I have learnt this semester as regards to the concept
of artificial intelligence.
\
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 3
Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................5
Analysis.......................................................................................................................................................5
Artificial Intelligence and Ethics.................................................................................................................6
Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace...................................................................................................8
Artificial Intelligence and Decision Making..........................................................................................12
Artificial Intelligence and Growth.........................................................................................................17
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................18
Reference List...........................................................................................................................................19
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 4
Table of Figures
Figure 1: AI and Ethics................................................................................................................................7
Figure 2: AI in the workplace.....................................................................................................................9
Figure 3: AI and Decision making.............................................................................................................12
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 5
Economics Analysis and Decision Making of Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace and its
Central Ethical Issues
Introduction
Some of the key topics learnt over the semester in this course include economic primer
and basic principles, horizontal boundaries of the firm, integration and its alternatives, the power
of principles, market analysis, competitive analysis, entry and exit strategies, the dynamics of
competing across time, industrial analysis, strategic positioning for competitive advantage, and
information and value creation. Additionally, the book used for the course explained the concept
of sustaining competitive advantage, measurement of business performance and incentives,
strategy and structure, and even environment, power and culture. Therefore, the course was
particularly important in educating the learner on the most important concepts in business.
However, this paper shall focus on the aspect of artificial intelligence in the workplace and the
main ethical issues surrounding it. By and large, this concept is relevant and important because
Artificial intelligence has become part and parcel of the modern business world. Companies all
over the world are incorporating artificial intelligence into their operations, and it is therefore
important to consider its application as regards the workplace, ethics, decision making as well as
its contribution to the growth of the firm.
Analysis
Artificial intelligence refers to the simulation of human intelligence processes by
technologies such as computer systems. These gadgets are often designed to think like humans
and copy the way people act (Tegmark, n.d.). Over the past few years, artificial intelligence has
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 6
become a critical component in the work place. Mainly, one can attribute this to the fact that
technological advances have become a major component of the modern business world (Mar,
2018). Today, AI is penetrating most key sectors of the economy from healthcare, to
transportation, advertising, education, finance and legal. The simulation technique is changing
both the competitive landscape and customer expectations to create a culture shift at top
organizations. As a result, this form of digital transformation improves the way work is done
within organization. Big organizations are experiencing a culture shift. It also changing the
competitive landscape and shifting the expectations of stakeholders and clients that are altering
nearly all ways through which organizations operate.
Today, there are three forms of artificial intelligence levels. The first one is the assisted
intelligence which involves the use of computer systems to automate basic tasks. The second
type is the augmented intelligence. Primarily, this is an AI that learns from human input. As a
result, it can make correct assessments based on the AI data that has been fed into the system.
The last form of AI is known as autonomous intelligence. This as an Artificial Intelligence
system with humans out of the loop (How Artificial Intelligence, 2017). A perfect example of
autonomous intelligence is the self-thinking driving cars and autonomous robots.
Artificial Intelligence and Ethics
Artificial intelligence is one of the greatest scientific and engineering inventions of all
time. It is imperative to note that the possibility of developing machines that can think and
perform tasks just like humans creates a number of controversies and ethical concerns from the
society. People are concerned that these machines and robots may cause significant threats to
human life (Burton, Goldsmith, Koenig, Kuipers, Mattei, Walsh, 2017). Recent dramatic
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 7
progress in the technology has seen the invention of programs that are able to achieve human
acts such as self-driving cars being able to drive themselves on highways, and city streets with an
excellent safety record. As a result, these inventions have solicited public reaction and concerns
on the potential threats that these machines could pose to humans (Tegmark, n.d.). As such, the
integration of artificial intelligence to human life raises a number of ethical questions. These
questions include how should AIs behave in our society? (Burton et al., 2017). What should we
do is jobs are in short supply? Should AI systems be allowed to kills? Should the society worry
about super-intelligence and the singularity? How should society we treat AIs? (Burton et al.,
2017).
Figure 1: AI and Ethics
Source: (Daily Mail, n.d.)
By and large, the course highlighted the importance of ethics and the issues surrounding
the ethical nature of Artificial intelligence. The goal of teaching this ethical concept was to better
equip the learner with the understanding these challenges by exposing them to various modes of
reasoning and thinking (Bostrom and Yudkowsky, n.d.). As a result, by the end of the lesson, the
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learner is equipped with the skill to consider a set of problems from different perspectives and
consider each problem in the light of different theories. Primarily, the main ethical concern that
arises from the use of artificial intelligence is the privacy concern. Privacy regards to the
freedom from interference and intrusion. Fundamentally, the Fourth Amendment safeguards and
guarantees the right of an individual to be safe in their persons, papers, houses, and effects
against any unnecessary searches. The law protects the individual against violation of their
privacy and therefore should not be violated and no warrants are to be issued without probable
cause. Warrants are only permissible upon probable cause supported by oath and affirmation.
Today, it is generally agreed that AI technology has given rise to various controversies
pertaining to issues of invasion of privacy and moral concerns. AI applications such as Siri and
Alexa have been known to record private information about people through audio, and can be
used by malicious individuals to take advantage of people. As a result, this has brought about the
debates as regards to whether or not people can still enjoy their privacy while using AI enabled
gadgets. There has also been the aspect of super-intelligence and people are concerned that it
may be one of the biggest existential threats of all times (Burton et al., 2017).
Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace
During the semester, this course emphasized on the importance of Artificial Intelligence
in the workplace (Sharma, 2017). At the moment, Artificial Intelligence has been used in the
form of digital assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana, Google Assistant,
Apple’s Siri, Facebook’s M and Zuckerberg’s Jarvis (Sharma, 2017). Today, companies like
Facebook, Google and Spotify have invested in huge amounts in Artificial Intelligence
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 9
Development. Additionally, other firms in different industries have also firmly entered into the
system are adopting artificial intelligence in their operations.
Figure 2: AI in the workplace
Artificial Intelligence can play an important role in the workplace. Today, the technique
can be used to eliminate bias and lead to a more meritocratic workplace. Over the past few years,
various companies have adopted the program in their operations. According to a study by
Pegasystems and Marketforce, Artificial Intelligence and automation impacts are much more
nuanced, and the program has a positive impact on how employees work (Sharma, 2017). So far,
artificial intelligence has proven very useful in the field of selection, recruitment, performance
reviews, and remuneration policies. According to the study, Sixty-six percent of the respondents
believe that the widespread use of AI will bring about a rise in transparent meritocracy in the
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 10
workplace (Sharma, 2017). On the other hand, 35 percent believe that the program will result in
a reduction in the level of office politics and bias. In their opinion, the decade long arguments
about bias and privilege could be resolved by the application of machine learning within
organization.
Furthermore, artificial intelligence removes and automates the ordinary and repetitive
tasks in the workplace that are inherent in running a business. By and large, artificial intelligence
is important in the workplace and has a powerful impact on streamlining the tasks. Furthermore,
it is adaptable to various environments and can be applied within a number of departments in a
company and across industries (Pedderson, 2018). It helps in asking basic questions and review
qualifications, allowing HR team to focus on important aspects such as human interactions and
getting to know the candidates better, and on a personal level (Pedderson, 2018). In this regard,
artificial intelligence improves the productivity of Human resource managers through
automation. Also, it can eliminate some of the risks that arise from human error and bias and
allows workers to identify and rectify these issues faster.
The interaction between human resources and artificial in the workplace provides the
promise of creating great value to modern organizations. As noted earlier, AI plays an important
role in selecting, recruiting, hiring, coaching, and employee service and development. Mainly,
this is done through the use of Chatbots. According to a recent survey by ServiceNow that
comprised of 350 HR leaders as respondents, 92 percent agreed that the future of offering an
improved level of employee service will consist of this program (Meister, 2017). In their
opinion, Chatbot is the newest member of the HR team. Mainly, this is due to the fact that the
program allows workers to easily get retrieve solution to frequently asked questions. What is
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more, employees are very comfortable with accessing Chatbots to obtain information whenever
they need to make clarifications on various matters at the workplace (Meister, 2017). The type of
questions that employees feel comfortable asking using Chatbot range from the general ones to
the factual ones. For instance, they ask questions such as how much paid time off do I have left?
How do I report sexual harassment and misconduct experience at the workplace? (Meister,
2017).Therefore, the AI technology plays an important role in smoothening the HR and
employees experience at the workplace.
In real life, various companies have adopted Artificial Intelligence in the modern
workplace. The organization was a law firm that utilized LawGeex. Primarily, LawGeex is an
open AI review program that reads and analyses legal contracts. The program is able to read a
contract for the company, even if it is a new document that it has never seen before. It can also
compare it to a compilation of analogous contracts that it has seen in the past for future
reference. It is worth noting that LawGeex functions fully just like real lawyers. Specifically, it
remembers what contracts it has seen before in the past for future references. Furthermore, the
program plays the role of cloud testing for the company. Thus it is very useful in test automation.
My experience with the program has shown that Artificial Intelligence can simplify the work in
the workplace, especially for the routine tasks. In this case, it has helped reduce the workload for
the law firm by reducing the large quantity of legal documents that the employees of the firm are
expected to read and inspect. Therefore, by reading through the contracts on behalf the lawyers
at the firm, the workload is significantly reduced. Before the program was introduced and
implemented, employees of the firm were forced to read through a significantly large number of
documents, sometimes repetitively. The large workload and the repetitive nature of the task
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would substantially reduce the morale of most workers. However, today, the process has been
simplified, thereby boosting the motivation of the employees at the organization. A boost in the
morale of the employees at the organization has translated to an increase in worker productivity
(Daniel, 2017). Consequently, an increase in worker productivity translates to an increase in
business returns and profits.
Artificial Intelligence and Decision Making
All in all, the future of artificial intelligence is one of overwhelming dominance and can
be useful in decision making. As companies change to keep the pace in the modern economy, AI
is developing into a critical asset for organizations by helping them gain an added advantage in
today’s highly competitive marketplace. At the moment, there is no custom-made strategy that
applies for all companies in implementing Artificial Intelligence within organizations. Therefore,
the management of any organization should work towards developing and adopting an artificial
intelligence program that works towards making the achievement of the goals and objectives of
the firm by making work easier. Artificial Intelligence techniques are continuously extending
and enriching decision making support. Decision making support is offered in terms of data
delivery, providing forecasts, analyzing data trends, developing data consistency, quantifying
uncertainties and suggesting courses of action, among others. Hence, apart from making work
easier, artificial intelligence can help in enriching the decision making process.
Figure 3: AI and Decision making
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 13
Source: (Daily Mail, n.d.).
Firstly, AI modeling and simulation programs play an important role in marketing
decisions. As usual, marketing decision are characterized by multiple complexities. Therefore,
the marketing personnel must understand the needs of the customer and align the design of the
product to meet the needs and desires of the clientele. It is also vital for the company to have an
excellent grasp of the varying consumer behavior in order to make the best decision for the
company, both in the long run and the short run. In this regard, AI modeling and simulation helps
the company by making reliable insights about the buyer personas. In turn, these methods can be
used to envisage customer behavior and modify the services and products offered by the
company to suit the needs and desires of the client. Particularly, through the Decision Support
System, the AI system is able to support decisions through real-time and up-to-date data
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gathering, trend analysis and forecasting. Additionally, the AI system enables many automated
functions such as data recording, contact management and lead ranking. AI’s buyer persona
modeling can also offer predictions of a customer’s lifetime value. What is more, sales and
marketing teams can work more productively through these features. In this respect, the artificial
intelligence program plays a critical role in decision making process in the marketing field.
In addition, artificial intelligence plays an important role in data assessment and
recommendation, which can play a significant role in helping in investment decision making. For
instance, hedge fund managers are getting interestingly fascinated by expert systems to trim
down errors in investment decision unlike most stock traders who utilize neural systems to
predict stock performance through the scrutiny of past data (Daniel, 2017). As a result, they have
a greater advantage of getting the best possible predictions and reducing errors in their
investment decisions. Thus investment managers who utilize the program get better forecast
results on stock prices and help make the best decisions and help them to bid accordingly. In
turn, this ensures that a superior investment decision is made, thereby guaranteeing the best
results. Therefore, AI is an important tool in the decision making of investment choices.
Furthermore, artificial intelligence has proven to be a useful decision making tool in the
healthcare industry. As we learnt in class, the program has undergone advancement over the past
few years. As a result, healthcare researchers throughout the world have shown interest in the use
of Artificial intelligence to help them save lives. For instance, a simulation model created by
researchers at the Indiana University can analyze patient’s historical data and recommend
treatment plans. Notably, these predictions and recommendations have been proven to be 50
percent effective at half the cost. In this regard, it is clear that AI has the potential to advance
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 15
decision making capabilities across various industries. Additionally, it has proven that it can
bring down the cost of various decision making processes, while at the same time make the best
decisions. Therefore, it is imperative to note that artificial intelligence has over the years
developed into critical decision making tools for various professionals.
Also, artificial intelligence paradigms are utilized in copying human actions to support
the decision making process even under uncertainties. As such, the program uses symbolic logic,
artificial neural network, evolutionary computing, probabilistic reasoning models and Intelligent
Agents (Agrawal, Gans, and Goldfard, 2017). In traditional programming methodologies,
numerical calculations and explicit logic are provided to help solve problems and make informed
decisions about particular matters in business. In accounting, the program has been particularly
useful in giving predictions, data consistency, quantifying uncertainty and suggesting the best
course of action as regards to a particular matter. As a result, the Artificial Intelligence program
plays a critical role in facilitating informed decision making in business.
In the same manner, the car and automotive industry has also become reliant on Artificial
Intelligence over the years. As such, many automotive companies have developed several AI
applications to help in decision making in sales and marketing. For example, AI has resulted to
the development of smarter cars that are well equipped with many sensors that learn and identify
patterns. Over the recent past, they have developed the driverless cars. This has been made
possible through the installation of add-on safe-drive features that warn drivers of possible road
collisions. It is worth noting that these automotive companies use consumer data to determine the
likes and desires of their target market, and then capitalize on the findings to make the decision
that best suits their potential clients (Sincavage, n.d.). This way, the manufacturer is assured of
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 16
making the best decision as regards to the products they produce. It is, however, imperative to
point out the fact that Artificial Intelligence technology is not the end but only a way to enhance
efficiency and effectiveness, improved innovative capabilities and better opportunities for
businesses.
Moreover, artificial intelligence helps in decision making through its ability to conduct
opinion mining. Primarily, this is a form of data mining that involves searching through online
sites for feelings and opinions of people on the web (Sincavage, n.d.). By so doing, companies
are able to obtain more information about how their goods or services are perceived by their
target market. It is worth noting that manual mining and analysis often take many hours and
requires a lot of effort on the part of the company (Artificial Intelligence, n.d.). Therefore,
artificial intelligence technology has helped shorten the time and reduced the effort required to
perform this important task through reliable analysis and search functions. In turn, the firm can
make informed decisions based on the findings made from the opinion mining results, and
improve.
Overall, this course enlightens students on the fact that collaborative decision making
and knowledge exchange has also been made possible through artificial intelligence.
Noteworthy, this concept has been proven useful in difficult clinical health-care decision by
incorporating a social context. Specifically, in complex neonatal intensive care units, physicians,
parents, nurses and other parties must collaborate to decide whether to initiate, discontinue, limit
or continue intensive treatment for an infant. In such cases, the system merges the possible
results of the treatment with the perceptions of the parents and the interpretation of the
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physicians. Therefore, the AI technology offers a channel for communicating complex data in a
structured form that is still personalized and customized to facilitate informed decision making.
Artificial Intelligence and Growth
The course materials also pointed out the fact that artificial intelligence has become an
important contribution to the growth of organizations in the modern world. According to recent
predictions, artificial intelligence has the ability to develop new sources of growth and reinforce
the role of people to drive growth in business (Lohr, 2017). Specifically, artificial intelligence
can enhance and drive growth in three different ways. Firstly, it will enhance growth through
intelligent automation. Different from the conventional automation solutions, AI-powered
innovation can automate complex physical tasks that need agility and adaptation and are capable
of self-learning. Secondly, it will enhance growth through labour and capital augmentation
(Artificial Intelligence, n.d.). As such, these two factors can be used more effectively as AI
allows employees to focus on their best qualities such as innovation, imagination and creation.
Lastly, growth can be enhanced through innovation diffusion. As such, artificial intelligence has
the ability to propel innovation as it diffuses through the economy (Aghion, Jones and Jones,
2017). In most instances, AI has proven to double down on growth. Mainly, this is achieved
through its characteristic to act like a capital-labor hybrid and transcend the current capacity of
labor and capital to enhance economic growth. Furthermore, the technology has unprecedented
opportunities for value creation (Artificial Intelligence, n.d.).
Furthermore, students discovered from the lesson that artificial intelligence can
contribute to growth through the automation of production processes. Over the years, the process
of production has been significantly improved. Production has evolved from the industrial
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 18
revolution when factories used steam, then electricity was invented to automate many production
processes (Aghion, 2017). Today, relays, semi-conductors and transistors have continued with
the trend and it is expected that artificial intelligence will continue with the system. Already, this
has been seen in inventions such as self-driving cars, A.I radiology reports, automobiles engines
and MRI machines (Desjardins, 2017). All these machines have proven to make work easier,
perform tasks efficiently and provide better results from the processes. Hence, it is safe to say
that artificial intelligence results in an increase in the level of productivity within a firm and in an
economy, and hence can bring about intensive growth.
Conclusion
All in all, all factors taken into consideration, the course has played an important role in
improving the learners’ understanding on the concept of Artificial Intelligence and its application
in the modern workplace. In addition, the course brought forward various ethical concerns that
arise from the use and implementation of artificial intelligence in the workplace. Besides that, I
was able to learn about the importance of artificial intelligence and its applications in the
workplace, and how the same technology can be used to drive growth in the workplace. Most
importantly, the unit has played an important role in impacting knowledge about how this new
technology can be used within organization to improve the overall decision making process.
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 19
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Reference List
Aghion A., Jones, B., and Jones, C. (2017). Artificial Intelligence and Economic Growth?
Stanford University. Retrieved 19 May 2018, https://web.stanford.edu/~chadj/AI.pdf
Agrawal, A., Gans, J., and Goldfarb, A. (2017). How AI Will Change the Way We Make
Decisions. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved 19 May 2018,
https://hbr.org/2017/07/how-ai-will-change-the-way-we-make-decisions
Artificial Intelligence for smarter decision making. Wipro. Retrieved 19 May 2018,
https://www.wipro.com/blogs/wipro-insights/artificial-intelligence-for-smarter-decision-
making/
Artificial intelligence is the future of growth (n.d.). Accenture. Retrieved 19 May 2018,
https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insight-artificial-intelligence-future-growth
Bostrom, N., and Walsh, T. (2017). The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence. Machine Intelligence
Research Institute. Retrieved 19 May 2018, https://intelligence.org/files/EthicsofAI.pdf
Burton, E., Goldsmith, J., Koenig., S., Kuipers, B., Koenig, S., Mattei, N., and Walsh, T.
(2017). Ethical Considerations in Artificial Intelligence Courses. Retrieved 19 May
2018, https://arxiv.org/pdf/1701.07769.pdf
Daniel, A. (2017). Artificial Intelligence In The Workplace…What’s it All About? Chatbots
Magazine. Retrieved 19 May 2018, https://chatbotsmagazine.com/artificial-intelligence-
in-the-workplace-whats-it-all-about-66375b26f7e
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Desjardins, J. (2017). AI will have an enormous impact on the future economy. Business Insider.
Retrieved 19 May 2018, http://www.businessinsider.com/infographic-ai-effect-on-
economy-2017-8?IR=T
Lohr, S. (2017). A.I. Will Transform the Economy. But How Much, and How Soon? The New
York Times. Retrieved 19 May 2018,
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/technology/ai-will-transform-the-economy-but-
how-much-and-how-soon.html
Professional Ethics - the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence. (2018). Class Presentation
Sincavage, D. (n.d.). How Artificial Intelligence Will Change Decision-Making For Businesses
Tenfold. Retrieved 19 May 2018, https://www.tenfold.com/business/artificial-
intelligence-business-decisions
Tegmark, M. (n.d.). How Benefits & Risks of Artificial Intelligence. Future of Life. Retrieved 19
May 2018, https://futureoflife.org/background/benefits-risks-of-artificial-intelligence/
Mar, B. (2018). How Artificial Intelligence Is Making Chatbots Better For Businesses. Forbes.
Retrieved 19 May 2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/05/18/how-
artificial-intelligence-is-making-chatbots-better-for-businesses/#323ca1304e72
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