You’ve heard about artificial intelligence, but what is weather intelligence? Weather intelligence is the hottest new kid on the block, and you’re missing out if you don’t have plans to incorporate it into your business strategy. Weather intelligence is the next step up from mere weather forecasts. A weather forecast will tell you what the weather is going to be like in the next few days – whether it’ll be sunny or raining. It will also give you an estimate of the temperature range.
When you add intelligence to this, you get predictive models of how these changes will affect your business. For example, if you run a logistics company, you’ll know by how many hours a package will be delayed because of a snowstorm or how much faster your drivers will arrive because of clear skies. Weather intelligence makes this a seamless process!
Why Should Businesses Be Interested in Weather Intelligence?
Weather intelligence can add trust to your relationship with your customers and add to their customer satisfaction. Whether you’re in shipping, logistics, construction, or technology, weather intelligence has relevance across the board. Even insurance companies evaluate the impact of the weather on risks and, in turn, premiums.
Weather intelligence is crucial for companies who have employees with boots on the ground. You can assess whether or not it is safe for your employees to go out and operate heavy machinery. You can also evaluate whether or not opening for the day is more profitable than keeping doors shut in inclement weather. Non-profitable ‘dead’ business hours can shave significant amounts off your bottom line. You can even say you’re losing money when you operate without weather intelligence.
What’s Wrong With Weather Forecasts?
Forecasts are a great way to get an estimate of what the weather is going to be like. You can estimate how the forthcoming weather is going to impact your business based on your own experience and guesswork. This will work, but only to a certain extent. When you automate this process and introduce machine learning, you’ll not only get a clearer picture of what these delays and hazards are going to be like but also gain insight into aspects like road visibility and fire warnings that might not have occurred to you.
The difference between weather intelligence and weather forecasts is like the difference between a bicycle and a Tesla. Sure, both will get you from point A to point B. But one will do it faster, better, more efficiently, and will leave your hands free to do other work! Incorporating weather intelligence helps you increase your productivity and maximize your resources, two components that are always important when running a business.
How Can I Use Weather Intelligence?
You can use weather intelligence everywhere from your business strategy, daily operations, marketing, and more. In the retail segment, you can push weather-appropriate products at certain times. For example, imagine you run a restaurant. You can run deals on cold beverages on hot days to drive sales. You can set limited-period offers depending on intelligent forecasts. This causes more people to order from your establishment, word gets out about your place, and you can stand to gain more customers with just a simple switch in strategy.
In agriculture, you can protect crops against damage by irregular weather patterns. In construction, you can plan your outdoor and indoor activities. You’ll be forewarned about severe weather conditions and have time to reschedule everyone’s duties so that a little rain or hail doesn’t completely disrupt your workflow. You’ll also be alerted of changes in air quality that has a severe impact on employees.
Since it is such a personalized tool, you will have to uniquely implement how you can use weather intelligence to suit your needs. Weather intelligence is of unquestionable importance in long-term business strategy. You will be alerted about the various ways your work might get disrupted and have time to prepare plans to mitigate the damage. Workflow disruptions can strain relationships with clients and lead to a loss of trust in the business, especially if your work is particularly time-dependent.
Final Thoughts
Weather intelligence is another way to fine-tune your business strategy. You can use it in marketing, in sales, and more. Harnessing the power of weather intelligence is the next stage of using data to streamline business operations. It is an often overlooked yet powerful way to increase your profitability. In fact, even the military uses it to maximize their return on investment in expensive infrastructure. Using this next evolution of data analytics, you can give your business an edge over the competition.
