The franchising industry is one sector that is slowly but surely acknowledging the benefits of artificial intelligence or AI. In essence, AI is expected to drive efficiencies, enhance decision-making, and drop marketing costs, among other opportunities. AI technology is slowly finding its way into the franchise industry, and it is expected to leave an indelible mark on this sector in the coming years.
Experts in technology, data analytics, and business processes have conducted a SWOT analysis of franchising and explored the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats associated with adopting AI technology. AI can enhance franchise operations, decision-making, customer experience, scalability, and supply chain optimisation. Adopting AI also comes with the potential for new revenue streams, competitive advantages, enhanced collaboration, and innovation.
Despite these advantages, franchisors must also consider some challenges that AI integration can bring. These challenges include ethical concerns, such as privacy, surveillance, and algorithmic biases, starting from public perception to regulatory backlash, and damage to franchisors and suppliers. Companies must use AI as more than a tool supporting human workers, creativity, and intuition in addressing the challenges in the industry.
Franchisors have the opportunity to tap into substantial benefits if they curate and leverage AI ideas across their network, learn faster, and become AI experts. AI technologies can be complex, and some breakthroughs are required for upending integration barriers. However, AI democratisation makes it accessible to individuals, including those in smaller businesses, which could disrupt everything. Therefore, the Franchise AI Think Tank was created to educate and inform the industry about AI use and ethics, share best practices, and produce guidelines.
While AI has the potential to revolutionise businesses and industries, including franchising, it is necessary to balance out advantages and challenges, understand top advisory services, and incorporate AI as a tool to enhance human workers. The franchising sector experiences significant impacts from societal and political implications related to AI, which franchisors must anticipate and prepare to address. As such, franchisors should leverage AI to enhance scalability, customer experience, marketing, decision-making, and supply chain optimisation while ensuring it does not replace human workers and greatly adheres to ethical guidelines.
In conclusion, AI integration could significantly benefit the franchising industry. However, franchisors must balance AI’s potential advantages and potential risks of AI to ensure that it adheres to ethical guidelines and remains a tool that supports human workers’ creativity and intuition towards addressing the sector’s challenges.