How to Apply AI in Business | Neil Haboush

Take computer vision a branch of AI, which itself is a branch of computer science with cv. Neil Haboush can create a system that does a subset of things that the human visual system can do in CV. The system can analyze a picture taken by a camera to understand, what's in the picture.

For example it can recognize objects like cars, streetlights and people. While humans have no problems with these kinds of things. It's difficult for computers to do the same thing because all it sees is a rectangular array of pixels. Each with a certain intensity and color we need the computer to somehow take a step back and look at the pixels. Around the neighborhood of a point instead a popular way to do that is to slide a window across the image and at each point look for higher-level features.

If you can somehow summarize what's in each window, then you can run the same process. Through summaries and repeat the process to hope to recognize objects computers, do this through a network of nodes called neural networks. An image can be fed into the network and the concept of sliding one window or the image is called convolution. So the network itself is called a convolutional network or CNN.  So that's Artificial Intelligence Park now let's look at the business part.

Say you have a business that manages a parking lot in the city of Montreal. We have three types of customer’s members who pay a monthly fee and whose credit card information. We already have members who pay per use and whose credit card information. We already have non-members who just pay by usage and whose credit card information we do not have. We want to use a computer vision based license-plate recognition system to simplify operations. When cars come in or go out their plates are automatically red and the members are charged appropriately. Others are charged at exit but there is no concept of having to take a ticket as customers. Drive in a customer simply pulls up into the parking lot and parks on entry. The CD system registers her license plate and logs her check-in time when she leaves.

If she's a member, she simply drives out, if she's not then the gate does not open until she pays at the credit card machine. Here's what the process looks like a non-member may choose to become a member with a single acknowledgment.  Since we already have all the required information for membership like the credit card license plates and car model to make this all happen. The license-plate recognition system the registration system and the billing system. All have to be integrated there are a few other processes and systems as well but as you can see the CV system is simply one part of the end-to-end process. Now let's look at some exception conditions, what happens if the car comes in with dirty license plates and the system is not able to read it.

We have a few options here one is to send the car through a manual process where someone reads off the license plate and enters.  It manually this will increase operational costs that includes an employee and perhaps construction of a separate lane for such processing. Another is to write it off because the number of such occurrences, may be so small that it's not worth paying somebody to handle. Exceptions this decision needs to be made based on historical data, because you don't want to write off too much revenue another option is to use two systems want to read the front of the car and another to read the license plate at the back of the car.

This will reduce a number of exceptions but some states do not enquire front and back license plates. Yet another option is to install a water spray module to wash off the soil in the snow as the car enters. This will increase the reading accuracy and is similar to cleaning the data before you feed it into a CV system or a machine learning system. The point is that as you look at the total implementation of the process you will see that artificial intelligence plays only a small part you have.

To make many other decisions about customer experience, speed cost employees processes etc to make the solution reality. So don't get an armoured by the AI technology. We might even have to throw in other technologies like IOT and blockchain to make these processes even more robust.

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Kindness is The Best Business Strategy | Neil Haboush

Kindness is one of the most powerful forces in business, yet hardly heard of. This is one strategy that doesn’t require cost, can generate profit, promote goodwill and branding and most importantly, renew your mental and physical health. Let’s explore with Neil Haboush, a business icon as he unveils kindness as an important key to success in business and life.

Kindness is The Best Strategy in Life | Neil Haboush

Kindness is one of the most powerful forces in business, yet hardly heard of. Think of the last time a customer care service responded negatively when you complained about the product or the time your manager was rude to you. You aren’t going to shop there again, never! And you will probably feel less inclined to cooperate with your manager neither. 

The sad truth is many people are brought up to believe the act of kindness is a sign of weaknesses, and many are used to an unhealthy business world dominated by cut-throat competition and governed by domineering managers. It’s no wonder the act of kindness has been long forgotten and it has taken the backseat when it comes to business strategy. This is one strategy that doesn’t require cost, can generate profit, promote goodwill and branding and most importantly, renew your mental and physical health. Let’s explore with Neil Haboush, a business icon as he unveils kindness as an important key to success in business and life.  Read on!

Kindness is The Secret Weapon to Healthy Living

A simple consideration of your fellow humans- including employees, clients, potential clients, and even competitors can go a long way in shaping your mental and even physical health. Research has shown that people who carry out acts of kindness for others have higher levels of kindness flourishes psychologically and emotionally. it can also release oxytocin hormone that helps to reduce blood pressure. This means when you are kind, your heart will thank you. As an entrepreneur who is constantly fighting business battles, this is a much-needed dosage to stay right on track in the business world. 

Kindness Builds Powerful Long-Lasting Connections

The more you give without expecting anything in return, the more capital you amass, and the more the reputation grows. The fact is you never can tell where people you impacted positively might be in the future and what benefit this might be to you. A simple act of kindness can be sharing a competitor piece of content, or helping a fellow in need. A person that cannot afford your brand today can be an advocate tomorrow or your helper. 

Kindness is a Powerful Competitive Advantage

In a world where consumers have countless options for businesses and brands to choose from, the act of business can be your competitive advantage. Why not stand out among the crowd and be kind, it cost nothing! Shops and restaurants where people are friendly and warm will probably be your go-to and you will rather run from businesses where employees are rude and mean.  Everyone wants to be treated with respect. In a world where word of mouth accounts for 50 percent of business sales, set the tone for good customer experience and turn them into an advocate. Customers will remember when you listen to their problems and help resolve an issue. 

To create a lasting impressions on clients, businesses should be ready to do things that are out of the ordinary and go that extra mile.” says Neil Haboush. Being kind, giving and making your customers feel valued will make a legendary customer service that will get people talking about your business for years” Neil adds. 

Earn the Respect of the Employees

Employees will be more productive and ready to put in their best when they work in a warm, responsive work culture. 33% of employees stated that they would change to more empathetic employers for equal pay while 20% said they would do it for less pay. An act of kindness will command respect from employees and promote the ones that will stand by you through thick and thin. You can be firm and still be kind. You can be focused on being successful while still showing empathy to those around you.

Neil Haboush | 5 Cyber Security Tips for Startups in 2020

As of 2017, more than 50 percent of startups are victims of cyber-attacks, according to Symantec’s cyber security report. Surprisingly, more than 60 percent of the cyber-attack victims are out of the business world after 6 months. What does this mean? The sad truth is more and more SME’S and medium-sized companies have been the main targets and they have suffered the hardest hits in recent years. As a startup, while you might not be able to stop attackers from infiltrating your business, there are effective steps you can take to prevent or at least reduce the amount of damage that can occur. You don’t have to experience the dark underworld of the internet, here is Neil Haboush, a financial and technical manager in Beaconsfield to walk you through some cyber security tips to ensure your business stays safe and secure in the complex digital world.

 
Use Strong Password

As much as simple passwords are attractive they can be the key for easy access for attackers. You won’t forget easily and it doesn’t come with the hassle of management when one password is used across different sites. Well, you are simply making the whole process easy for hackers. One of the effective, practical ways is to use stronger passwords. That is a combination of special characters, numbers, mixtures or caps and small’s letters and complex ordering. To be safer, use different passwords across multiple sites and this will ensure not all your accounts are messed with. However, managing multiple passwords can daunting, but having a password manager that saves all the passwords in a safe encrypted form will ensure none is Lost.

Use Two-factor Authentication/Multi-factor Authentication

Two- factor authentication is an extra layer of protection that passes beyond mere username and password to include something the user has on them. This proves to be a more effective way of securing sensitive information than single based authentication. As explained by technician Neil Haboush, the authentication method might require, for instance, the user, providing a password, then either a security token such as cell phone and/or biometrics (such as picture or fingerprints).

Stay on Guard

It’s not enough to get security software or tools installed, ensuring they’re also up to date will ensure you are taken a proactive approach to cyber security. Your antivirus and antiphishing tools are there to detect, protect and prevent malicious attacks if they are aren’t updated, you are simply creating loopholes for attackers. A good rule of thumb is to get your software and network update and checked regularly by cyber security experts to ensure there aren’t any cracks in your security walls.

Provide Cyber security Training for the Employees

With different expertise and specialization in the workplace, some employees can be the gateway for cyber-attacks, data breaches or phishing scams as hackers might take advantage of their ignorance. Investing in cyber security education for your employees is very important to ensure information are secured at every end. Moreover, limit access to sensitive information, data and cyber security maintenance to in-house or your cyber security team only. 

Organizations embracing the latest trends such as remote workers, BOYD and IoT, should also train employees on both physical and cyber security and go the extra mile in investing in high-quality devices that come with the latest software and security control.

Be Smart, Do Not Give Away too Much

Sharing way too much information across social media platforms is generally not a good idea. Business needs to be careful and vigilant when giving out information. Moreover, be aware that information can also be compromised physically. Physical security breaches can occur when dumpster divers ransack wastes for documents containing sensitive information, discarded storage media or files. Shred or burn the document to stay safe.

While you are incorporating these cyber security tips to stay secure, it is also important to have a recovery plan put in place.” says Neil Haboush. In case of security breaches, an organization with an efficient backup plan will be able to recover quickly and avoid the horror stories” Neil adds.