The Next Big Thing in AI
Our intelligence is what makes us human, and AI is an extension of that quality. — Yann LeCun
Artificial Intelligence(AI) may seem like sci-fi, but AI can do some pretty amazing and impossible stuff that humans will never be able to do. For instance, the personal assistant in your phone like Google Assistant or Siri adapts to users’ voices, individual searches, and preferences. Today, AI is changing every aspect of technology, from self-driving cars to playing chess, AI has started to outperform humans in each and every task. Companies are now making huge investments in AI to grow their businesses.
In 1956, John McCarthy, a computer science teacher at MIT introduced the idea of Artificial Intelligence. He outlined AI as the science and engineering of making intelligent machines.
AI Startups
Just as electricity brought a remarkable change in the world, today, AI is doing the same. AI has created a huge impact not only on technology sectors but it’s traversing a path around other sectors such as retail, healthcare, fashion, manufacturing, and so on. In fact, some AI startups are making their mark in all major sectors. Startups such as Arya.ai build and extend AI apps and models using neural networks. This company has made apps for insurance claim automation, banking, and fraud classification.
AI is Everywhere and it’s Growing
AI influences our lives directly or indirectly. Though we may not be aware of it, AI is everywhere. For instance, when you open your mail, your emails get automatically sorted into social, public, private, and so on. This classification of email is owing to the natural language processing algorithm which is all AI or when you type a query in the search box of the search engine, there are hundreds of possible recommendations related to that search. The system chooses the best possible website according to your search and the choice of keywords use and gives you the best websites related to your search. This is due to the page rank algorithm of AI.
Companies Leading The AI Revolution
Google
Google has a separate division known as google.ai, dedicated solely to the research in artificial intelligence. One of its projects TensorFlow focuses on giving researchers a free cluster to perform machine learning research on their findings.
Microsoft
When Bill Gates founded Microsoft in 1991, he had a vision of computers surpassing humans in every aspect. With this vision in mind, Microsoft has been funding AI areas for the last 25 years. Some of its ventures in AI include virtual assistant Cortana SDK, Chatbot Zo which allows users of Facebook or GroupMe to chat personally.
IBM
Watson, the famous AI computer of IBM which answers questions in natural language won the US quiz show jeopardy outperforming its human counterparts.
Facebook
Facebook is using AI to help blind people ‘see’ photos by using the AI app which narrates them the description of every photo. Also, it is using AI to produce detailed maps and access to the internet across the globe.
Apple
Apple builds AI products without compromising the user’s privacy. For instance, if a picture was taken from a certain location, Apple will introduce more pictures from other locations so that people will not know the exact location of the user. The company also acquired an AI startup, VoiceIQ for further development in Siri as well as allow users to handle their certain functions via commands.
What exactly is ‘The Next Big Thing’?
The next big thing in AI may not be anything in specific, but maybe in different sectors. According to a recent study by IDC, Artificial Intelligence represented $12 billion in market investment in 2017. By 2021, that figure is expected to rise to $57.6 billion. The company has predicted that 40% of digital transformation projects will be based on Artificial Intelligence by 2019. In addition, 75% of business tools will use this technology by 2021.
But which sectors are implementing this technology? Which sectors are leaders in AI use? Which sectors are beginning to use AI and which ones are falling behind? How is AI being used in each industry? Let’s see:
Banking and Finance
According to the same IDC study, the banking and finance sector is currently at the forefront of investment in Artificial Intelligence. However, it is expected to be replaced by the retail sector throughout the year, which is investing heavily in this technology.
Banking and finance companies will spend around $3.3 billion this year on fraud investigation projects, credit risk calculations, and threat prevention systems.
According to Accenture, “automation, bots, automatic learning, and adaptive intelligence are becoming part of the financial team at a high speed.”
Processes such as digitization, auditing, traceability of policy compliance, and automation of frequent customer queries are some areas of application.
Retail
The retail sector appears to be the leading investor in Artificial Intelligence. According to IDC, retail companies are planning to invest $3.4 billion by the end of the year, surpassing investment by the banking and finance industry.
This investment in Artificial Intelligence by the retail industry will be carried out in different areas, such as customer service, expert advice on purchases, and operations related to multiple channels.
Manufacturing
The manufacturing sector trails the retail sector in investment, spending $2 billion on intelligent solutions annually.
Companies in the manufacturing sector are increasingly convinced that innovation in Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things are the key to being competitive in a hyperconnected world. With data analytics and AI, we can talk about Industry 4.0, in which AI provides robotization, VR, AR, and nanotechnology.
Healthcare
In the IDC ranking, the healthcare sector is fourth in spending. It invested $1.7 billion in Artificial Intelligence this year.
Some of the solutions based on Artificial Intelligence that is currently being used in the healthcare sector are telediagnosis, intelligent emergency triage, individualized follow-up of each patient at a genetic level, virtual nurses and surgery performed by robots, among others.
Energy
According to a study by Infosys, 29% of energy companies worldwide say they have implemented solutions based on Artificial Intelligence and are satisfied with the results obtained. Only 4% of companies in the sector say they have no plans to incorporate AI into their processes.
The solutions implemented by these companies tend to be focused on some key areas. For instance, smart grids in the supply chain are capable of forecasting energy supply and demand, making intelligent analyses in real-time or detecting errors and fraud. Other solutions include predictive maintenance and energy efficiency.
Education
According to a study carried out by Stanford University, education will be the sector that will undergo the most change between now and 2030. The main factor in this transformation will be the ability to personalize education for each student and adapt teaching to their needs and capabilities.
The study underscores that the applications of this technology in the educational field will be mainly in virtual reality, educational robotics, intelligent tutoring systems, and learning analytics.
Logistics and transport
Artificial Intelligence is making important advances in the transport sector. These include self-driving cars, radars to detect obstacles and pedestrians, intelligent search for free parking spaces, and route optimization.
These developments have a direct impact on logistics. For example, self-driving cars can be used 24 hours a day without depending on the driver´s work hours. Together with the other solutions mentioned above, the logistics sector can save time, kilometers, and fuel. This translates to lower costs and higher profitability.
While some of these technologies are still in development, Intel and Strategy Analytics expects these solutions to move around $7 billion into the market by 2050.
