Industry Adoption of Cognitive & Artificial Intelligence — By Utpal Chakraborty

Utpal Chakraborty
Aug 26, 2017 · 5 min read

‘IT WILL BECOME INESCAPABLE’ — James Kobielus, Silicon ANGLE Wikibon Lead Analyst for Data Science, Deep Learning, and Application Development

Industry Adoption of AI & Cognitive Intelligence

Kobielus summarizes the far-reaching and inescapable tentacles of AI & cognitive intelligence in four simple words, as it takes hold of the industry at large and thrusts worldwide revenue to shatter unimaginable glass ceilings. Data analysts predict that the industry will have increased its revenue from almost $8 billion a year ago to a mind boggling $47 billion by 2020. So, let’s visualize the future vision of the industry in a few years, when it will have adopted AI & cognitive intelligence to its full potential. But first and foremost we must set a context and discuss a bit concepts used in artificial intelligence & cognitive intelligence.

What is artificial intelligence & cognitive?

“Artificial intelligence (AI) is commonly described as the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages”.

Cognitive Intelligence is the simulation of human thought processes in a computerized model. Cognitive computing involves self-learning systems that use data mining, pattern recognition and natural language processing to mimic the way the human brain works”.

Artificial Intelligence or cognitive intelligence is based on algorithms that central networks can apply to create apt processing of information to arrive at suitable decision. The following are common examples we see in daily routine:
· Air-traffic control systems that decide flight plans and choose suitable landing gates for airplanes.
· Logistics apps that assist companies route their vehicles to save time and fuel. Examples of such companies are Uber and UPS.
· Loan-processing systems that gauge the creditworthiness of mortgage applicants.
· Digital personal assistants that use multiple data sources in order to provide answers in layman’s terms, like Apple’s introduction of Siri.

How deeply is artificial intelligence and cognitive embedded into the industry?

Organizations of almost all types have already begun the process of integrating AI & Cognitive into pretty much every kind of enterprise application. Also, incorporation of AI & cognitive technologies released by large technology dealers will be the factor for enterprises planning strategies and the digital disruption bring about by these technologies will be significant.
Even as we speak right now, industries are accepting artificial intelligence rapidly and in huge numbers. As of now, we can safely conclude that;
· By 2018, 62% of enterprises will use artificial intelligence technologies.
· In 2015, only 59% of industries that used big data also used cognitive intelligence. Today, that statistic has seen a whopping increase, jumping to 95% industries that were previously inclined to big data, but are now also using cognitive intelligence.
· By 2019, half of all consumers are expected to have at one or more interactions with artificial intelligence.
The industry at large will be doing itself a great service by understanding the value of AI & cognitive intelligence and its adoption to their businesses.

What is ‘weak’ artificial intelligence?

Weak artificial intelligence emerges when it is used for purposes different from its original intention. It is simply when, instead of using algorithms for superior problem solving, artificial intelligence makes tasks easy and simple for human beings. Not to be lumped in with strong artificial technology which has a much more superior role in the industry and in our society.

Exploring ‘strong’ artificial intelligence.

Strong artificial intelligence, as the name suggests, serves a higher purpose. Strong artificial intelligence will become the basis of all innovation in all the industries in future.

The Best of Artificial Intelligence Today

In both cases, artificial or cognitive intelligence is based on algorithms with the ability to manipulate information to arrive at appropriate answers. While scientists have been bustling to develop cognitive intelligence for over a few decades, it is only now entering the limelight as a valuable business tool because of three key developments:
· Processing power continues to accelerate. As proved by Moore’s Law, named after Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, the number of transistors per chip has been approximately increasing twofold every year for the past four decades.
· To keep enhancing technology, companies like Nvidia are assisting the central processing unit (CPU) cores in their chips by adding graphics processing unit (GPU) cores.
· The amount of data, including but not limited to the amount of data storage, are continuing to multiply. Quoting the research organization SINTEF, “90 percent of all the data in the world has been generated over the last two years.” Furthermore, IDC reports, the amount of data that is made and distributed each year increases by two times in size every two years, so by the year 2020 there will be 44 zettabytes (44 trillion gigabytes) of data in the world.

Current Data on Investment in Cognitive Intelligence

Deriving from the Cognitive Advantage Global Market Report,
· 22% of companies have been using cognitive intelligence technologies for over two years.
· 54% of respondents have started using cognitive intelligence recently, with less than two years under their belt.
· 24% of respondents plan on adding cognitive intelligence methodologies in the next one year.
· 65% respondents view cognitive intelligence as essential to their company’s strategy and success.
· 58% respondents say cognitive intelligence is essential for digital transformation of industry operations.

It must be recognized that according to this report, artificial intelligence will soon become a must have accessory, acting as a prerequisite to business and industry success.

Which industry benefits most from using artificial intelligence & cognitive technologies?

Almost exactly half of all AI & cognitive intelligence revenue will go to the software industry, which includes but is not limited to AI & cognitive applications (i.e., text and rich media analysis, tagging, machine processing, formation of clusters, generating various hypothesis, answering multitudes of questions correctly, visualization, and navigation) and cognitive software, which aid the enhancement and development of intelligent, guidance, and cognitively endorsed problem solving. As both the biggest and fastest-growing niche, cognitive applications spending is predicted to soar as high as $18.2 billion in 2020.

A Geographical Bird’s Eye View

On a geographic basis, North America (the United States, Canada) is by far the biggest region for cognitive intelligence spending with 2016 revenues touching $6.2 billion. Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) will remain the second largest region for a certain period of time, but artificial intelligence revenues from Asia/Pacific including Japan will nearly close the gap with EMEA by 2020.
In Conclusion, artificial & cognitive intelligence should not be considered just a trend or a buzzword. It has gone above and beyond expectations and will soon be taking over the industry like wildfire, and will be the primary mode of establishment in all sectors.

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Utpal Chakraborty

Written by

Head of Artificial Intelligence at YES BANK, AI Researcher, Speaker on AI & Agile, Writer & Futurist

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