Forget past proclamations, AI is now ready for prime time
AI and its related disciplines Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) have been top of the news agenda recently leaving executives scrambling to establish their AI strategy. Forget past proclamations, AI is now ready for prime time and is widely predicted to be the top technology disruptor of the next decade, due to the convergence of big data and virtually unlimited computing power, enabling sophisticated algorithms to achieve results never before possible.
AI has applications in everything from digital assistants to autonomous vehicles and smart, voice-enabled devices and phones. A subset of AI, Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) are being used to translate languages better, identify objects in photographs, predict customer behaviour, analyse the genome, reveal insights buried in big data and aid in legal discovery as well as other routine work.
Google, IBM, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple have been heavily invested in AI for many years, but only recently have these become visible to consumers through more intelligent devices and services. Many leading companies such as Uber, Airbnb, Netflix, and Salesforce are using AI as a competitive advantage. Fintech and Lawtech startups are overturning traditional industry giants by being smarter, faster and better through the use of machine learning.
A recent trend is the democratisation of AI/ML technology; putting powerful algorithms into the public domain through widely available software APIs, toolkits and services. This ease of access accelerates disruption as it empowers companies small and large to add intelligence to their offerings and widen the gap with their competition.
The pattern matching and predictive power of AI/ML make it ideal for data-intensive industries such as Finance and Insurance, Retail, Professional Services, Media and Telecom, Government, Healthcare, Education and Manufacturing. AI/ML can be used to develop new products and services, to discover insights, to increase efficiency and automation, and to add intelligence to customer experiences.
Not to be mistaken for hyperbole, Artificial Intelligence can and will impact every industry much like the Internet has, but much more quickly and broadly since it is a general purpose force multiplier. When AI is combined with IoT, drones, AR/VR, bots, blockchain, robotics, 3D printing and cloud computing, we have the tools to achieve what was previously the domain of science fiction.
By Dave Meeker, Isobar US VP
