Stitch Fix, SetSchedule, and Deere prove the versatility of AI

When you read the words “artificial intelligence” you likely think of tech giants like Amazon, Google, and IBM. Personal assistants, self-driving cars, and big data processing.

But AI is showing up in almost every industry, changing the way people buy clothes, sell homes, and grow crops. We’ll look at three business cases: Stitch Fix, SetSchedule, and Deere & Co.

Stitch Fix learns your personal style

Not everyone enjoys a trip to the mall to purchase a new wardrobe. Stitch Fix recognizes that, and uses AI to make it easier than ever to find clothes that fit and match your sense of style. One of the many businesses designed to cater to people who lack either time, energy, or desire to shop, Stitch Fix sends a curated selection of clothing to users’ doors. The customer simply tries everything on, keeps and pays for what they like, and sends back the rest. Each choice of what to keep and what to return refines the algorithm’s choices, as it learns what the customer does and does not like. Not only does the service cater to men, women, and children, but they also offer Plus, Maternity, and Big & Tall options, serving customers who may have limited options available to them when they shop in person.

SetSchedule finds leads for real estate agents

Real estate is an industry that relies heavily on leads, and generating those leads can require a large amount of guesswork, networking, and cold calling on the part of the agent. SetSchedule utilizes AI to analyze the housing market in a given region and generate potential leads for agents. The algorithm considers a variety of factors to identify houses which are likely to go on the market and what their selling price would likely be, then also determines the potential value of the lead to the agent, in order to set the price for acquiring said lead.

Deere and Co revolutionizes farming

If the average person thinks about agriculture at all, they probably think of it as an old-fashioned, tradition bound industry, full of people working the land the same way their father and grandfathers did. The reality couldn’t be further from the truth! In the ongoing mission to grow enough food to nourish an expanding population, farmers are quick to adopt technology that will improve the quantity and quality of food that they can grow. This includes artificial intelligence.

Technology can help farmers know when to plant, when to apply fertilizer, and when to harvest. It can control equipment with greater precision than a human operator, guiding it nimbly through rows and minimizing damage to growing crops. It can track which fields have already been plowed or sprayed with pesticides. It can track whether conditions to determine the best time to apply herbicides, or when to harvest crops.

AI changes everything

You would be hard-pressed to find an industry that wouldn’t benefit from the application of artificial intelligence, and there are businesses in almost every sector exploring the possibilities. Businesses like SetSchedule, John Deere, and Stitch Fix are finding new ways to more efficiently give people what they need and want.