Assignment 3. Business Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence

Name:
Course Code:
Date:
Business Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence
Business intelligence is the process of harnessing the power of technological tools to collect and analyze business data and aid in making better decisions. Artificial intelligence is the process of creating machines or technologies that mimic human intelligence such as problem-solving, judgment and learning. Businesses have seen the potential these two technological concepts that have been touted to be the drivers of the future business environment. Companies that use these technologies give them an edge against their competitors and also provide better services and goods to their customers. One of the companies that have consistently been innovative and has tapped into the power of these technologies is Facebook.
Company Background
Facebook is a social media giant company headquartered in Menlo Park California. It was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 along with his friends at Harvard. Over the years it has grown and evolved from the college app mark Zuckerberg created for campus students to have more than 2.4 billion Monthly Active Users. At the moment it has a $542.15 billion market cap (as of 8th Nov 2019) making it the 6th most valuable publicly traded company in the world. it is also one of the most innovative companies that have experimented and spearheaded many technologies such as VR through its subsidiary Oculus, cryptocurrency through its subsidiary Calibra, and along the way acquired other companies such as WhatsApp and Instagram. The company has been investing in business intelligence technologies and artificial intelligence to give it an edge over its fierce competitors in the social media space and ensure it continues to rake in more profits.
Facebook’s use of Business Intelligence
To become the dominant social media platform, Facebook has had to make strategic decisions that have to outsmart its competition. These smart decisions have been made with the aid of business intelligence technologies. Facebook uses business intelligence to determine what kind of products and companies to invest into. In some instances, Facebook is usually late to invest in some futuristic technologies and therefore has to acquire them. in these cases, the executives turn to their business intelligence tools to determine the value it would add to its businesses in the short and long run. Facebook has acquired some of these companies in the past such as WhatsApp, Oculus and Instagram. These companies posed a significant threat to Facebook’s core business and therefore Facebook acquired them to stifle competition and remain the dominant force in the social media space. Such decisions are made with the advice of business intelligence which calculates the possible trajectory of the competitors and advises Facebook executives to acquire these companies. Facebook has also used its intelligence to estimate the impact of its investments which are aimed at onboarding more users on its platforms. Lately, the company seems to be finding new ways to enrich the user experience and keep them connected to the platform. One of the latest acquisitions the company has done is CTRL-Labs which is a brain-machine-interface” startup that lets users co...