The information you didn't know you needed
Artificial intelligence can be a powerful tool for business and career development. Systems developed by JDC Israel help analyze market niches and find jobs by relying on real data rather than intuition.
Every once in a while, I have to silence the voices in my head calling me to open a coffee shop. "It's a really bad idea," I tell myself. "It's less romantic than you think," I scold myself. But these stray thoughts always find a way to sneak back in. I imagine myself opening the coffee cart early in the morning, when the street is still half-empty. First, I make myself a coffee just the way I like it, and enjoy it in a few minutes of quiet. Then the regulars start arriving. Here's the one who likes a hot Americano in any weather, here's the one who is in a hurry and likes a small latte on oat milk and without foam. How fun that I can be a significant stop in their daily routine, a small refuge from reality.
These stray thoughts attack not only me. The love of Israelis for coffee carts is second only to their love for complaining about the situation. Hundreds of coffee carts operate across the country today — the exact number is unclear, and probably ranges between 250 and 500 — not including established cafes. Apparently, a coffee cart is a simple business: you lay out a few tens of thousands of shekels on setup costs and equipment, pay a barista and someone to operate the register, bring pastries and sandwiches from an external contractor, and go ahead and print crates of money. The hole has not yet been created that, if a coffee cart were placed in it, would not be filled with Israelis, including a line, especially if it is open on Saturday.
But is it really such a profitable business? Until recently, anyone who wanted to answer this question seriously had to find the way, and the resources, to conduct a comprehensive market analysis. To consult with people who have already done it in the past, to trust them that they are not lying to him. Perhaps to use business consultants, even for a fee, perhaps to buy information to understand what the competition picture looks like in the field. Otherwise, all that exists is just intuition, and only in hindsight can one know if it was correct. These things are relevant to almost every industry, from coffee carts to a business of decorated cakes for events — how can you know if the business you want to open is profitable, what the expense structure looks like, what the revenues look like, what the cash flow looks like, what are the things you didn't think about along the way? The next government should formulate and promote a broad program for developing such tools. A central function needs to be established that will identify what is needed, understand what the data repositories are, and hire experts who will build simple yet sophisticated systems.
Data-driven tools
This is the stage where I want to introduce you to Biz Data, a system from JDC Israel established in cooperation with the Small and Medium Business Agency at the Ministry of Economy and the National Digital System. This system is connected to many government and business databases, and through an artificial intelligence engine provides a comprehensive initial analysis of any business you are considering opening, and at a very high resolution. Thinking of selling decorated cakes in Ness Ziona? Giving private English lessons to high school students in a certain neighborhood in Tel Aviv? Focusing on private fitness training in Hod HaSharon? Ask the system if it's worth it.
The more specific details you enter about the imagined business in question — is it from home, at the client's home, or do you need to rent a place? How many employees will you need? Have you taken into account social contributions? — the higher quality the analysis you receive will be. I checked if it's worth opening a coffee cart not far from my home. I answered all the system's questions with the maximum detail possible for me. I received a sophisticated dashboard, one that would have taken me a long time to produce on my own, and would have probably cost me quite a bit. It included the required initial investments, the cost structure, the expense structure, the expected monthly cash flow. I received a calculator that allows playing with all the numbers — adding or removing employees, changing their salary, etc. And no less important, I received quality information about the competition in the area, an important parameter when you want to determine pricing and understand the cash flow.
In short, Biz Data is a great tool — a rare case of an AI system that is connected to quality information on a large scale and gives great value to users, and that is open to the public, and for free. It was much more effective than the voices inside my head. It taught me that a coffee cart is a business with more headaches than I think. That although there isn't a lot of competition in my area, the revenue potential is only 60 thousand a month, and that after deducting the many expenses, I will be left with a profit of less than 9,000 shekels (and as mentioned, full of headaches). Even in conversations with ourselves, data is sometimes exactly what is missing to calm the noise.
Jobify: more than just job hunting
This is not the only AI system of JDC Israel that sits on government and other databases. In fact, it is the smallest of them. The larger one is Jobify, which draws information from dozens of employers and from all the major employment boards. It is intended to help you find a job, but it does much more than that. Like Biz Data, it allows you to put intuition aside — and look at the data. It starts already at the first step. Jobify will help you write a resume or improve the resume you upload to it, and then it will examine it. It will analyze your employment history, break it down into relevant skills, and present you with a variety of open positions that match these skills, not necessarily in your current profession. It will show you what the salary ranges are for all these roles — invaluable information that is almost impossible to find today — and will offer you training that will help you get accepted for these roles.
Employers also benefit. They can access resumes that users upload to the system to locate potential and quality candidates quickly. And local authorities can see all the information in the system, both of employers and job seekers, to better identify supply and demand trends and perhaps create collaborations with companies and establish new frameworks for vocational training and training in the workplace. If you are still wondering how artificial intelligence can upgrade our lives, here the JDC has given an answer, in two systems that are based on extensive real-time information and offer tools that assist the public, in all its parts. How beautiful.
It is no coincidence that this comes from the JDC. This organization was established 112 years ago to assist Jews around the world, it still does so there, but here in Israel it has become the sandbox for the state's experiments. Its people know how to create for the government pilots of all kinds in many social fields, and thus they can check if a certain program works before the government invests billions of shekels. This is an amazing model in my eyes, and it proves its effectiveness time and time again. The arm of the organization that focuses on the field of employment is called JDC-Tevet, and it is responsible for both of the above systems. If we had waited for the government to build such systems, well, we would have continued to wait. And they demonstrate well what the service that the state gives to the public could have looked like if it had used artificial intelligence properly instead of remaining with systems from the days of "we have come."
