Does AI Really Matter?
Source: COGNITIVE WORLD on FORBES
Artificial intelligence has been around for many decades. However, In the past decade, interest and investment in AI have skyrocketed. In the past few years, companies and organizations in just about every industry and across the world are adopting a wide range of cognitive technology solutions spanning the seven patterns of AI with applications in finance, retail, automotive, healthcare, government applications and many more industries showing adoption. With this adoption and hype around AI, we need to ask ourselves how can AI help and does AI really matter?
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Does AI Matter?
With the seemingly endless use cases for AI, we need to ask the question: does AI really matter? In many ways, the answer is clearly yes. Even in its current limited and narrow form, AI is making things better overall for societies throughout the world as well as helping businesses become more efficient. Use cases span many applications and many industries.
AI systems are also being put to good use sifting through very large volumes of data and helping analyze that information more quickly and efficiently. AI is helping people to process information and large chunks of data more efficiently and with fewer mistakes. Increasingly, AI-enabled systems are helping people and companies make better decisions by processing large amounts of information and analyzing data with fewer mistakes due to human error. These intelligent systems are helping businesses to make decisions faster and with more insight than ever before. By AI having the ability to analyze and process large amounts of data and run through scenarios quickly, tasks performed in high stress or dangerous situations such as wartime operations or dangerous environments such as mines are able to be augmented with AI decision making.
AI can also be used to perform repetitive or boring tasks that are error-prone freeing them up to work on higher-value tasks that require human interaction or creativity. Some companies are using AI-enabled chatbots or robots to replace certain tasks and have humans step in for higher-level customer service. AI can allow us to go into places in situations that are too dangerous for humans or too high stress for any one person to perform. A prime example of this is having to face dangerous situations such as in mining operations where the environment is too dangerous for humans. Or even in military operations such as using unmanned ground vehicle transportation and systems that can automatically feed information and analytics back to a military base.
AI can be used to positively impact operations and outcomes in the healthcare industry. AI robots are assisting doctors with surgeries. AI-enabled systems can provide assistance to radiologists by analyzing medical images and acting as a second set of eyes to spot anomalies in the image. AI-enabled systems are also being used in the back office to spot fraud and billing errors that previously required manual reviews by humans.
In particular, there are many, practical applications of AI adopted by businesses in their efforts to make their customer service experiences more straightforward and simplified. These machine learning-enhanced applications range from chatbots to personalized recommendations on websites. The simple act of having AI chatbots available allows for customers to have conversations any time they please rather than only during business hours and it also frees up workers to deal with the more complex or complicated cases that really need human attention.
AI is helping banks with regulatory compliance and providing audit and log information. AI can also monitor transactions, keep an eye on customer behaviors, and other compliance and regulatory systems flagging in real-time any issues or activity that seems out of the ordinary. Many banks are also deploying robo advisors to help customers better manage their money. These robo advisers are able to provide high-quality guidance on investment decisions and be available whenever the customer needs their assistance, but at a cheaper price than traditional human financial advisors.
AI is even being adopted in restaurants and retail stores. Companies are creating AI-enhanced retail experiences where customers can walk into a store, grab what they need, and walk out without ever interacting with a human or waiting in line to purchase the item. Given today’s concerns with COVID-19 and exposure to contagious viruses, this sort of no-human-touch experience might even be expedited. Many establishments such as Dominos, Pizza Hut, and Starbucks are also making it easier for customers to get food by using voice ordering assistants. McDonalds is trying to automate the drive-thru experience cutting down on wait time and increasing the customer experience.
AI is Still Keeping the Human in the Loop
While autonomous applications of AI capture our imagination with self-driving cars and systems that can operate with limited human involvement, the most practical AI systems being put into place today are actually augmenting human activities, with the human still in the loop. Many companies are moving towards augmented intelligence where AI is not replacing the human but rather enhancing their skills and ability while still keeping the human in the loop. This augmented intelligence approach allows humans to be more efficient in their work.
From everything we’ve seen, AI is helping to enhance just about every single industry, but will AI stick around this wave? It ultimately comes down to the fact that AI is moving from early innovators and adopters to the mainstream. If this trend continues we expect just about every company in the coming years to have AI capabilities or risk being left behind by competitors.
Kathleen Walch is Managing Partner & Principal Analyst at AI Focused Research and Advisory firm Cognilytica (http://cognilytica.com), a leading analyst firm focused on application and use of artificial intelligence (AI) in both the public and private sectors. She is also co-host of the popular AI Today podcast, a top AI related podcast that highlights various AI use cases for both the public and private sector as well as interviews guest experts on AI related topics.