Technology giants are placing huge bets on it and industry watchers and analysts can’t stop talking about it, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution is truly upon us. Being deemed as the technology of the 21st century, forward-looking organizations have already started tapping into its potential to gain an early-mover advantage. As per the findings of a report by TCS, as many as 84% of companies see the use of AI essential to competitiveness. On similar lines, a report by Forrester estimates that investment in AI will grow by 300% in 2017.
The Rise of Intelligent Machines
As AI uses machine learning and natural language processing algorithm to simulate the intelligence of humans in machines, it has the potential to transform wide-ranging areas in previously unimaginable ways. Let’s take a comprehensive look at 5 key areas that stand at the forefront of being revolutionized:
- Steering Towards Autonomous Transportation: Self-driving cars have constantly been on the top tech trends list for the past few years. With giants like Google, Tesla, Uber, and General Motors aggressively investing, this space is witnessing a lot of innovation. According to a report by Business Insider, fully autonomous cars are expected to come to market within the next five years. Going ahead, as we see more advances in AI, autonomous capabilities won’t be limited to personal transportation. Expect autonomous everything, which essentially means AI software tailored for trains, buses, trucks, and tractors.
- Redefining Healthcare: AI has immense potential in redesigning healthcare by addressing key challenges related to quality and availability of healthcare services. The most obvious and yet useful benefit of AI in healthcare is mining medical records data. The ready information available to physicians can then be used to provide quick and effective diagnosis and design optimal treatment paths. In India, Manipal Hospitals are using IBM’s Watson, which can offer a diagnosis based on over 15 million pages of medical content and patient data from across the world, to offer better care and treatment for cancer patients.
- Banking on AI: A report by Accenture estimates that within the next three years, AI will become the primary way banks interact with their customers. Artificial intelligence based automated chat systems (chat bots) are a great example of how customer service is all set to become more personalized in banks. Other key areas where AI is being applied is in banking, with fraud detection and anti-money laundering pattern detection. Fraud detection was actually one of the earliest use cases of AI in banking and enables banks to respond to potential frauds in real time.
- Refashioning the Retail Industry: AI will help the retail industry to take personalization to another level. It will not only help retailers to make perfect buying suggestions by factoring in variables, such as age, ethnicity, purchase history, and more, but will also help them sync their store and online selling efforts. For instance, the sales staff will have access to the products viewed and reviewed by customers online, which will help them target the customers better. As we look ahead, the retail industry will turn to AI to get answers to all their business-critical questions right from where to open the store to stocking inventory, creating offers, and increasing footfall.
- New Era in Education: Education has been following the same structure and one-size-fits-all approach for decades. Thanks to AI, this space is all set to transform. Personalized education will become a reality as teachers will be able to recognize topics where a particular student is struggling and take action based on insights gained with AI. Instead, with an AI-based system, students can focus on areas that they find difficult. Some other useful applications include using an AI-based system for grading students’ answers, AI-based tutoring systems, bots for answering student questions, and more.
The coming years will see the AI technology becoming mainstream and disrupting every area possible. As we look ahead, businesses will start using the combination of AI, Big Data, and IoT technologies to gain access to powerful and actionable insights. As per Forrester, businesses that use these technologies to uncover new business insights will steal $1.2 trillion per annum from their less informed peers by 2020.
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