4 Reasons Why Algorithms Are Crucial To Today's Businesses

Algorithms are at the heart of many changes today. These complex formulas can have a big impact on your business. Search engines, social media and product development: it’s all about algorithms.

An algorithm is a mathematical formula that describes how a problem can be solved. Algorithms can perform calculations, data processing, and automated reasoning tasks. These formulas can have a big impact on your business. In our age of big data, the possibilities are almost infinite.

One of the biggest trade secrets today is the algorithm at the core of the Google search engine. This very complex formula decides in large part which business website will reach their customers and which news articles will have an impact on the populace.

The algorithm is so secret that even many Google employees don’t know the nitty-gritty. RevelX partner Noud van Alem had senior positions at Google, but he doesn’t want to divulge the magic algorithm to me.

At the same time, Google is really straightforward about ways to optimize your website for their search engine. Pro tip: just read their blog for webmasters!

Smart formulas can also predict what a customer will need, and when. Subsequently, the right offer is made at the right time.

A great example is Freda, an eco-friendly period-care subscription service. “Traditional subscription services are all built on a monthly basis which is, 12 per year, as opposed to a menstrual-cycle basis (on average 28 days per cycle approximating 13 per year),” founder Affi Parvizi-Wayne said in an interview. “Many women have different cycle lengths and our algorithm over time will predict their average cycle length and ensure timely delivery so they’re never caught without.”

Products themselves can also be developed or iterated on the basis of insights derived from algorithms. This approach may even decide the future of Hollywood.

Increasingly, film studios are turning to companies which use artificial intelligence to gain customer insights. One of these innovative firms is Silver Logic Labs that uses machine learning algorithms to analyze footage of people watching a film or clip. The goal is to determine how people actually felt about a movie or a particular scene.

Because there are millions of dollars at stake for even minor productions, I think this approach will be widely adopted.

Algorithms have a big impact on the way we experience social media. Using secret algorithms, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter decide which posts will become viral and which will not.

Because social media have become a major tool in political campaigning, these algorithms are a hot topic at the moment. Leading up to the 2016 election of American President Donald Trump, Facebook’s “Trending” algorithm regularly promoted fake news. Mark Zuckerberg’s firm has countered this by focusing more on the reason most people use this network in the first place: seeing what your friends are doing.

On the other hand, YouTube and Facebook also use algorithms to remove extremist and hateful messages. So, algorithms will play a role in safeguarding a more healthy political culture too.

Algorithms have penetrated many aspects of our lives. It is time to ask yourself: “Where do these formulas affect my own business?” After that, you have to make an analysis of the factors that you can influence. In a later article, I will tell you how to use algorithms yourself to improve your process.