The Future of Image Recognition in Businesses

Globally, the forecast for the image recognition industry is set to be a $38.9 billion market by 2021. Clearly, this technology is growing in use and demand — but why?

New technologies can help to enhance businesses in countless ways, and image recognition software provides a whole host of useful functions. With the ability to improve everything from customer experience to streamlining operational procedures, let’s take a look at how the software works and why it could enhance businesses across the board.

The role of mage recognition software

For high-dimensional data and internet pictures, image recognition software can retrieve, process, examine and interpret images and information. It takes this from the ‘real world’ and produces useful information in multiple formats. This could be anything from uploading a photo of a group of friends to Facebook that automatically tags each person to their accounts, to taking a digital fingerprint scan in order to determine a person’s identity.

Online content proliferates through the digital space at a constant rate, and it currently accounts for 80% of what we see online. Therefore, image recognition systems are advancing rapidly and they are becoming more and more adept at simulating human vision and understanding.

Evolving customer engagement and daily business processes

Across the board, more and more industries are adapting their strategies and incorporating these new technologies. Many companies now have a digital presence, whether on social media or via an online store. A major advantage of this technology is that it can offer real-time insights into consumer behaviour — but not only your consumers. Visual analytics will allow you to monitor the consumer behaviour of your competitors, which will allow you to address their concerns within your own campaigns and potentially attract them to your brand instead.

Most businesses are conscious of their online competitors, especially in an ever-saturated digital space— but this can make it tricky to stay up to date with others in your industry. With image recognition software, you can now find similar content to what your brand is putting out on social media and track down social mentions of your company — no more manual, time-consuming searches. Not only will this help you monitor the competition in your industry, but it will also allow you to be more responsive to marketing opportunities that would otherwise have been missed and pick up on trends that may be flying under the radar.

It has been predicted that the global gross app revenue will hit $102 billion by 2020, and a lot of businesses are working hard to capitalise on the rise in digital apps. Clearly, there is money to be made and customers to be won with apps, but how does image recognition assist? This technology can help brands boost engagement levels with their consumers, letting them extend beyond the standard boundaries of online and offline and making the app more immersive. As a result, promotional material and discount offers should be able to pack a greater punch and potentially offer a greater ROI.

Notable industries that benefit from image recognition

So, which sectors are getting the most out of image recognition software? Let’s take a look, with some help from Precision Printing, digital printing specialists.

Fashion

The fashion industry has successfully incorporated image recognition software into many of its facets. Firstly, a consumer, when leafing through a magazine, can use image recognition software on their mobile devices to scan a product they’re interested in and land straight onto its product page or relevant online marketing content, which could increase the chances of a conversion. Similarly, consumers can upload images of clothes they like and shop online for similar or complementary products — streamlining the shopping experience.

Trends are much easier and quicker to pick up where image recognition software is used — and this could prove invaluable, as the programs keep advancing in technicality. But which brands are dominating digitally? As part of their Fashion Retailers Digital Marketing Review 2019, digital marketing agency, Mediaworks, found out. Head over to their site to download in full.

Automotive

Image recognition technology has also proven itself as a useful tool in the automotive industry. Self-driving vehicles are an emerging market and they’re being developed with the assistance of image recognition. To ensure that self-driving cars are safe, they need to be able to detect hazards immediately and make informed decisions regarding their next action to avoid causalities. That’s where image recognition comes in. With this technology, self-drive car sensors will be able to spot dangers on the road in the same way as a human motorist does, reacting in a way that should avoid crashes and accidents.

Even though driverless cars won’t be commonplace on motorways any time soon, image recognition is already helping brands to capitalise on future developments.

Healthcare

Image recognition is also benefitting those in the healthcare profession, helping to speed up diagnosis and consequently, improving treatment rates. The technology is also being used to help process the huge numbers of medical images that need verifying and checking in the sector. As a result, doctors can diagnose conditions and diseases at faster rates and with great accuracy, meaning less stress for the patient and easing the pressure on the doctor when it comes to arranging the best course of action.

The benefits of image recognition are enhancing day-to-day processes in a whole host of industries. Are you clued up on how it can help your business in 2018?