3 Strategies for Working Natural Language Processing Into Your Operations Posted on : Jun 09 - 2022

If you’ve ever used predictive text, you’ve used natural language processing technology. But its uses extend far beyond finishing your sentences in texts and emails. Find out how it can benefit your company, your team, and your customers.

A computer didn’t write this article. It wrote this one for The Guardian, though. Here’s how: It got a big dose of help from a little something called Natural Language Processing, or NLP.

Whether you realize it or not, NLP has become as routine as typing a text to your colleague. In fact, you probably have relied upon NLP to pick the perfect word without realizing it. NLP is leveraged all the time to help us humans type faster by grabbing hold of predictive text.

Still not quite sure what NLP is or how it works? Think of it this way: NLP serves as a bridge between the human and computer worlds, as we speak vastly different languages. Built using AI, NLP helps computers make linguistic sense of what we write and say. After all, humans can be complicated creatures, and we use tons of euphemisms. At the same time, NLP can help non-techie types gain higher comfort levels with computers, programming, and data.

NLP isn’t just useful for telling Alexa what song to play or finishing your Gmail thoughts. It’s becoming a powerful tool for professionals across a wide swath of industries around the globe. As one author noted in a piece for Harvard Business Review, NLP was helping him optimize his research processes. The result? He could do his work faster and with less friction — and he didn’t have to sacrifice an ounce of peace of mind.

So can NLP serve up advantages for your company? To be honest, it probably already is, at least on some level. Again, think about all the times predictive text has saved you the effort of completing a sentence. However, if you’re looking for ways to actively bring more NLP into your everyday workflows, try one or more of these suggestions.

1. Lean on NLP for better-informed business decisions.

You’re sitting on plenty of valuable data that keeps growing exponentially. NLP can not only parse through the data, but also assist you in finding trends. By interpreting enormous data pools, NLP can reveal opportunities. Perhaps best of all, you don’t have to understand Linux or Java to get the answers you seek. You can just ask an NLP-powered program to perform very specific tasks on your behalf in your own language.

For instance, you might want to know which day of the week you sell the most widgets. Rather than sifting through the data yourself or asking a team member to do it on your behalf, you would just ask your NLP assistant. What could be easier? Though NLP software doesn’t always return perfect results, it can be highly accurate. Additionally, its responses can get more reliable over time, thanks to machine learning. View more