Artificial Intelligence

The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) has played a key part in ushering in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. According to the World Economic Forum, “it is disrupting almost every industry in every country.”

“We stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. In its scale, scope, and complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before.” – Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum Geneva

Artificial intelligence is a conglomeration of concepts and technologies that means different things to different people – self-driving cars, robots that impersonate humans, machine learning, and more – and its applications are everywhere you look. The typical definition of AI looks something like this:

Why is Artificial Intelligence Important?

Artificial intelligence systems are critical for companies that wish to extract value from data by automating and optimizing processes or producing actionable insights. Artificial intelligence systems powered by machine learning enable companies to leverage large amounts of available data to uncover insights and patterns that would be impossible for any one person to identify, enabling them to deliver more targeted, personalized communications, predict critical care events, identify likely fraudulent transactions, and more.

Harvard Business Review gives key insight into how important AI is in today’s economic environment:

“The effects of AI will be magnified in the coming decade, as manufacturing, retailing, transportation, finance, healthcare, law, advertising, insurance, entertainment, education, and virtually every other industry transform their core processes and business models to take advantage of machine learning.”

Companies that fail to adopt AI and machine learning technologies are fated to be left behind:

• Global spending on AI will grow 50% compounded annually and will reach $57.6 billion by 2021.
• Industries like retail, marketing, healthcare, fintech, insurance, and more will all stand to benefit from AI and machine learning.
• Companies driven by insights from data will take $1.2 trillion a year from non-insight driven companies by 2020.
• 83% of early adopters are already gaining value from AI and machine learning initiatives.
• The net gain in jobs resulting from AI adoption will be over 5 million.