Humanity has long been obsessed with the potential of computerization and robots. The concept of artificial mind hasn’t appeared out of anywhere. Previously, artificial intelligence (AI) was vigorously discussed in the domain of science fiction. But those days can rightly be seen as the cradle of AI and approaches of employing it in the way businesses do now.
Back to the year 1983, there were well-known predictions by Isaac Asimov, an eminent science fiction writer, who, in his works, was ahead of the time. He named computerization among the main focuses of the development of society in the year 2019. Also, he foresaw a dramatic leap forward in developing machines working like a human brain. Indeed, not far from the truth.
Let’s figure out present-day predictions for AI based on the results of a global survey conducted by world leaders in the domain.
1. Data Analytics Will Have a Central Role in Organizations’ AI
According to SAS, more than 60% of respondents (with organization’s CIO, CTO, and Chief Analytics Officers among them) agree that analytics and AI are inextricable from one another. The more organizations will deploy AI-based systems, the larger will be the number of the proponents of this position. AI itself, in a sense, is analytics. More than half of respondents out of the adopters of predictive AI engine consider more accurate forecasting and decision-making as core benefits of using AI. As the community of the adopters will grow, the sphere of using AI for shaping organizations’ data-driven strategies and more accurate decision-making will broaden.
2. Social Media, Marketing, and Customer Interactions Will Become Prime Functional Areas for AI Deployment
Adoption of AI technologies should be analyzed through the lens of different industries. Such is the opinion of Accenture’s specialists. For instance, in the financial services industry, with AI widely used and demonstrating real progress, AI assists human professionals in the field with security, verification, predictive tasks, and so on in an easy-to-understand manner. However, when technology meets consumers face-to-face, things become complicated. Customers seek more explicit explanations of AI. It is vital to disclose the essence to a general audience, impress and engage consumers, and stay comprehensive when introducing amazing capabilities and new customer experience.
To add more, AI can enable new options for using social media. It is poised to process and analyze volumes of data on social accounts and communities across different social networks and power strategy building to find more efficient ways of doing business and running marketing campaigns.
3. Under Human Supervision, AI Is Going to Improve a Quarter of Organizations’ Business Processes
Successful AI adopters fully admit its transformational potential. New best practices will emerge resulting in maturing business processes. Organization development will become more and more anchored in AI capabilities unless businesses want to lag behind.
However, AI-based processes aren’t flawless. Like any other results of complex business processes, AI output requires reviewing and verification. As the survey results suggest, over 70% of leading AI adopters tend to review AI output at least weekly. Practically the same number of respondents anticipate transformative changes to 25% of business processes or even more. The transformational potential won’t be implemented instantly and can take more than one year. Still, the technology is ahead of abilities to cope with it, but the gap can and will be gradually closed.
4. The Ethics of AI Will Remain of Paramount Importance
The ethical issues resonate with the first law of robotics formulated by Asimov. He said that a machine might not cause harm to a human or stay inactive allowing a human to come to harm. AI has a real impact on present-day reality, and there is much controversy in this regard. One can only imagine what role AI is going to play in the future.
To date, as the survey unveils, about 63% of AI adopters are preoccupied with the ethical issues to the extent that there are ethics committees created to review AI use cases. About 70% of respondents consider preparing their employees for the deployment of AI as an indispensable stage in the course of the adoption processes. With the growing number of organizations successful in merging AI into their business processes, the importance of potential unethical use of AI will be unlikely to be wiped away.
5. AI Will Not Affect Jobs but Will “Elevate Job Roles”
Employes may grow nervous about AI influencing their careers, in a negative sense, of course. However, SAS’ analysts claim that nobody is talking about eliminating human involvement in the work of AI. It’s not about replacement; it’s all about redistribution of tasks to hand over exclusively strategic ones to human employees.
The survey-based stats highlight that more than half of the respondents are sure that the concerns about job security are unnecessary hype. The need for more education about AI and its real potential will be relevant this year and in the years to come. AI will increase its potential to revamp the relationship between employees and technology.
Taking Stock
Today AI-enabled systems do effectively emulate natural processes of thinking and analyzing. They cope with respective tasks better than humans do. And invariably continue to build capacity.
AI will be primarily focused on data analysis, which will empower organizations to reconsider some ways they do business. Advanced analytical capabilities will allow deriving valuable data from social networks and refining interactions with the consumers by making AI more transparent for a general audience.
The adoption of AI will become a necessity to maintain a competitive edge. But in pursuit of new revenue sources, it will be crucial to keep an eye on ethical issues of AI deployment and wisely introduce the technology to employees. Such are the pillars of AI development to watch this year.
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