In the coming year, artificial intelligence (AI) will only become more ubiquitous. It’s easy to mistakenly think that the only companies that care about AI are giant tech corporations. Savvy small businesses also keep an eye on new developments and incorporate them into their companies.
Roy Raanani, CEO and Founder, Chosus.ai said in a recent Forbes article. “We are seeing the democratization of AI through open-source algorithms, affordable computing power and AI specialized hardware. Google TensorFlow released open source software to allow anyone to build on Google’s own machine learning algorithms. Also the introduction of AI specialized hardware by Apple, Google, Tesla and NVIDIA Sis increasing AI performance by tens to hundreds, and enabling that performance in smaller form factors.”
What does that mean for your business? The short answer is a lot.
Top Trends in Artificial Intelligence
The coming year will bring AI to a greater degree in the business world, including small businesses. As we know market share is always essential for entrepreneurs. Meaning they look to capture a significant portion of it quickly. So, artificial intelligence will play an increasingly central role in competitiveness.
1. Artificial intelligence specialists.
According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, AI specialists will be joining more companies as AI becomes democratized. Further, experts will be working cross-functionally to ensure businesses have a clear strategy for AI that is incorporated company-wide. PwC notes that the AI specialist “responsibilities should cover business questions, such as how to identify use cases and how to develop accountability and governance. It should establish and oversee enterprise-wide data policies. And it should determine technology standards, including architecture, tools, techniques, vendor and intellectual property management, and just how intelligent AI systems need to be.”
2. Humans and machines.
Entrepreneurs and business leaders understand that humans will have an integrated relationship with artificial intelligence. Moreover, it’s merely a matter of creating one that will benefit humans. One of the fascinating developments in AI is that artificial learning can learn at an impossible rate for humans. Also, the learning includes understanding what humans say when they speak. But, it also knows what they do not say. In short, humans express lots more than words when they talk in what they say—and don’t. So, customer service AI will provide an even better customer experience. It’ll do so by knowing what humans say and what they’re not saying. In short, AI understands the likely human intent.
3. Video conferencing for communication.
AI has entered the business meeting rooms as virtual assistants. One of the leading video conferencing companies, Zoom, published the results of a survey to more than 1000 users of their product. On average, people who participated in the survey spent 8.8 hours meeting each week. 73 percent of people thought that AI would positively impact their meetings. Some of the AI tasks that most excited people, which is already happening and will only increase, are taking minutes, scheduling, and meeting transcriptions. Remote workers were particularly enthusiastic about AI becoming an integral part of video conferencing because, “… they rely so heavily on virtual meetings to communicate that they are also eager for these technologies to make it easier and more immersive for people who are not physically present.”
As artificial intelligence learns more about the needs of humans and business leaders figure out how to integrate human workers and technology to gain market share, we can only expect more significant change and evolution. 2019 promises to be a year of enormous advances in AI with more powerful tools and perhaps a platform or two that we don’t yet know. Still, early adopters and entrepreneurs will be testing in their businesses in six months.
Author of “Not Your Father’s Charity: Grip & Rip Leadership for Social Impact” (Free Digital Download)
© 2018 Wayne Elsey and Not Your Father’s Charity. All Rights Reserved