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Computer Vision Is Driving Huge ROI for Businesses
Kathleen Siddell
Anyone who’s been around for the past decade (or less) understands how quickly technology changes, improves, and pivots. It can make knowing which solutions to invest your company’s time and resources in difficult. However, when the benefits of one technology are clear, companies are quick to take action.
From facial recognition algorithms used in security software to product inspection tools used in quality assurance, computer vision is everywhere. Immersed in the applications that touch our daily lives, computer vision is a sub-discipline of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). This technology is changing the way business is done.
In fact, a 2022 McKinsey report found, “the average number of AI capabilities that organizations use, such as natural-language generation and computer vision, has also doubled—from 1.9 in 2018 to 3.8 in 2022. Among these capabilities…computer vision has remained the most commonly deployed each year.”
Why? Computer vision can directly grow businesses’ ROI. Whether it's improving productivity, streamlining processes and tracking downtime, reducing operating costs, or monitoring safety compliance, computer vision improves business efficiency. Proper implementation carries some startup costs, but computer vision integration is proving itself to be invaluable in the 21st century.
What is Computer Vision?
Before you can understand the benefits and costs of computer vision, it helps to know a bit about how the technology works.
Using techniques like object detection, object tracking, and image recognition, computer vision models are fed a large number of sample images and taught to recognize objects within those images. Each image is annotated and saved to a dataset. This dataset is then used to train a computer vision model and eventually to deploy your computer vision application.
The benefits for this kind of real-world, real-time data is significant across industries.
Computer Vision Provides Valuable Accumulating Benefits
Unlike some other emerging AI technologies, computer vision is not prohibitively expensive. Additionally, computer vision drives great productivity and process efficiency. It provides real-time data insights, helping businesses tailor their offerings to consumer preferences. These are just a few of the benefits enterprises are leveraging when they integrate computer vision into their operations.
ROI: Improve Processes and Maximize Efficiencies to Work Smarter
AI and ML help computers work smarter, and computer vision is the sensory input that makes that possible. Computers have historically outperformed humans at repetitive, monotonous tasks requiring no creativity or critical thinking, but computer vision changes that dynamic.
With image processing sensors and software, computer vision enables machines to make inferences about their environment based on past experiences they've been programmed to learn. The result is automation that is superior at performing repetitive tasks, identifying defects and anomalies, processing repetitive visual metadata, and adapting to irregularities with precision and efficiency.
For example, the manufacturing industry used to rely solely on humans to inspect materials and identify defects. Only a human could find faults like missing labels, defective packaging or goods — until now. Cameras equipped with computer vision can identify such anomalies and ensure they don’t cause unnecessary delays or downtime in production — without tiring or making mistakes.
How do those benefits translate into ROI?
After incurring initial startup costs, computer vision allows enterprises to automate mundane tasks and optimize staffing. Especially as labor shortages continue, greater automation can translate to significant ROI. Because computer vision captures critical data in real-time, it also means enterprises can address issues as they occur, streamlining processes, minimizing delays and disruptions, and further boosting ROI.
ROI: More Relevant, Usable, Real-Time Data
One of the primary revenue drivers of computer vision applications is collecting data in real-time. Whether computer vision applications run on the edge, in the cloud, or on an on-premise server, data is processed and inferenced immediately removing the lag time between noticing customer trends and responding to them.
Computer vision also enables nearly all industries to improve their operations and productivity through real-time data about the issues that mean most to their bottom lines. From construction sites to manufacturers to retailers, computer vision applications can be trained to provide insights into the processes that drive your business.
For instance, a quick-service or fast-casual restaurant needs to understand their backend operations to manage prompt and accurate food delivery. Especially as many meals are customized, knowing where there are choke points or delays in processing orders is critical to ensuring customer satisfaction. Computer vision applications can provide this unprecedented data in real-time allowing for managers and owners to make better business decisions.
Similarly, a manufacturing plant or construction site, with expensive equipment could get accurate data on machine usage to better understand plant and site productivity. Machine idle time could cost companies hundreds of thousands of dollars – in part because it can be difficult to monitor at all times. But with computer vision, you’re always watching.
How do those benefits translate into ROI?
The real-time data insights garnered from computer vision boosts ROI by providing transparency into processes making companies more nimble and better able to adapt to issues as they happen. The result? Better, more impactful business decisions that lead to immediate savings.
ROI: Increased Compliance and Security
Compliance violations and security threats quickly erode profitability. Regulatory compliance violations can result in costly fines. Security breaches can result in preventable accidents, stolen property, or compromised sensitive data.
Computer vision can mitigate these threats. Here's how:
- Regulatory compliance can be enforced with computer vision by ensuring that employees are following proper safety protocol. One example is the construction industry, where employees must abide by certain OSHA standards and wear PPE to avoid costly fines.
- Hazardous or restricted areas in manufacturing plants or on construction sites can be monitored 24/7 to ensure no one unauthorized enters the area.
- For construction sites with delivery trucks, subcontractors and staff moving through multiple gates and entry points, computer vision provides extra sets of eyes to maintain safe worksites.
How do those benefits translate into ROI?
The heightened security computer vision brings to the table is a key ROI driver. Not only can it minimize hefty fines, it can ensure the safety of employees and customers, and bolster your company's reputation.
Which Industries Have Seen Computer Vision Drive ROI the Most?
Because computer vision enables organizations to automate processes, reduce costs, improve accuracy, and increase productivity, it adds immediate value to a wide variety of industries. While the ROI of computer vision varies depending on the industry, use case, and implementation, there are several who are already seeing dramatic results.
Manufacturing
Computer vision can reduce costs and improve efficiency in manufacturing by automating tasks such as quality control, defect detection, and assembly line optimization. By catching defects early in the production process, manufacturers can avoid costly rework and reduce waste. Additionally, computer vision can detect machine downtime immediately to minimize delays and enable machines to work more efficiently by optimizing production processes, resulting in higher output with fewer resources.
Construction
Computer vision is being used to identify potential safety hazards on construction sites, such as workers without the proper safety gear or equipment that is not properly secured. By identifying these issues early, construction companies can take corrective action to prevent accidents and injuries. Computer vision is also used to track the progress of construction projects and identify areas where work is falling behind schedule allowing contractors to make adjustments and allocate resources more efficiently, ultimately leading to faster project completion and cost savings.
Quick-Service and Fast-Casual Restaurants
QSRs and FCRs are seeing dramatic results from computer vision. Most notably, computer vision is being used to optimize kitchen workflows and backend operations. With real-time data, restaurants can identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies as they happen and make the necessary adjustments while also improving order accuracy. As a result, managers can better allocate staff, especially as labor shortages persist. Computer vision can also monitor and track patrons at checkout lines and in drive-thrus to reduce wait times and improve speed of service.
Retail
For brick-and-mortar retail stores, computer vision provides tremendous value. From frictionless checkout to counting customers to monitoring foot traffic and dwell time, the real-time analytics enabled by computer vision provides stores with better data about customer preferences and behaviors. Computer vision can help retailers optimize their supply chain by improving inventory management, reducing out-of-stock items, and minimizing overstocking. By automating tasks such as inventory tracking and replenishment, retailers can reduce labor costs and improve accuracy. Additionally, computer vision can help retailers to personalize marketing and promotions, leading to increased sales and customer loyalty.
For nearly all industries that could leverage increased visibility into their operations, the key benefits of computer vision are the same: higher productivity, greater real-time intelligence, cost savings, and a larger ROI.
Computer Vision and ROI: Costs
Increased productivity, immediate data collection, and improved processes are a few of the benefits of computer vision. But these benefits don’t come without a cost.
Computer vision algorithms are highly advanced, and require a great deal of technical expertise to implement effectively but that doesn't mean computer vision implementation is out of reach for smaller businesses; it just means that companies must be careful when they decide how to deploy their computer vision technology.
The cost of implementing computer vision depends on a number of key factors:
- What is the problem you want to solve with computer vision?
- How many edge devices do you plan to deploy the application to?
- How often is the application going to run?
- Are you going to run the application on the edge, cloud, or on an on-premise server?
- How often do you plan to make changes to the application?
Implementation: Consultant, In-house, or Platform?
The costs of implementing computer vision vary according to the mode of development. There are three basic modes that companies can choose from in-house, consultant, or platform. In-house development requires greater equipment and can significantly drive up staffing costs but can be a good way to get the custom solution you need. Hiring a consultant takes the burden of development off companies' shoulders, but solutions may be more standardized and customer serviceability varies.
The third option is to use a platform like alwaysAI that specializes in delivering custom computer vision solutions to enterprises. Platforms like alwaysAI offer industry-specific computer vision solutions without the complexities of in-house maintenance. They reduce overhead costs and speed up implementation, helping companies quickly gain higher ROI from computer vision integration.
As a truly unique, all-inclusive software solution, alwaysAI has a robust platform that will take your project from start to finish without ever requiring third-party software or an enterprise mobility management system. From collecting, uploading and annotating data, to training a model and deploying applications, alwaysAI provides enterprises with all the tools they need to implement computer vision quickly – and scale accordingly.
Most notably, our Dataset Management tool and Remote Deployment feature are unlike anything else in the market. Typically, users have to use third-party annotation software (like CVAT) to annotate their data. Then import that data into their computer vision platform to begin training their model. alwaysAI Dataset Management was created to ensure you never have to leave our platform (but also seamlessly integrates with other tools) so you can easily accelerate your data pipeline to model training.
Once you’ve trained your model and developed your app using alwaysAI’s robust catalog of APIs, you can deploy your application from any location with alwaysAI Remote Deployment. You can control multiple versions of your application, deploy unique computer vision models, and access your data from any location for ultimate control. You can also manage and configure models, apps, and devices from one central location and monitor device stats like CPU usage, disc utilization, and more.
A comprehensive computer platform with these capabilities makes computer vision accessible to any enterprise. Unlike a consultant who may only offer standardized models or applications, alwaysAI will work with you to customize models and applications to suit your needs.
alwaysAI takes the best benefits of creating computer vision solutions in-house and the best benefits of working with a consultant and combines them into one accessible, affordable and quick solution.
Compare the differences:
**Costs to Implement computer vision: Example use case of a retailer with five stores and two cameras per location.
In-house computer vision implementation means high resource and labor costs but allows for a high degree of customization. On the opposite end, hiring a consultant removes the burden of in-house development, but can tie customers' hands by offering inflexible solutions.
Boost ROI with alwaysAI
Retail and Restaurant businesses relying heavily on customer interaction can expect a 10% rise in revenue after adding computer vision to their stack. Other sectors like manufacturing and construction are witnessing a 10–15% cost reduction when they implement computer vision. A McKinsey study reports that some industry leaders have derived more than 20% of their revenue generation from computer vision. With such clear ROI benefits, companies cannot afford to dismiss computer vision.