With the emergence of Artificial Intelligence or AI, businesses are undergoing drastic evolution. Enterprises of today are able to consumer humongous amount of information and leverage the same for smarter decision making, across a wide multitude of products and services.
We further live in a time where steady advancements can be witnessed in the ways machines have come to communicate or interact with humans. Take Google’s voice recognition, for instance; the technology has improved to yield 98% accurate results. In addition, the DeepFace technology introduced by Facebook is now able to get the task of facial recognition done by 97% accuracy.
What we are witnessing in the industry today is the confluence of superior AI prowess and big data analytics. As two of the key stakeholders of the ecosystems, both businesses and consumers are experiencing an unprecedented transformation. Here’s an attempt for deciphering the same.
Learning from the Data
Artificial Intelligence, quite simply put, is the assortment of algorithms that computes and trains a predictive model already in place. The current set of algorithms improves as it goes on to computing more data, hence exhibiting the same way a human is able to accumulate knowledge over the entire lifespan. The only difference is that AI is much faster.
Furthermore, with the advancements in technology, typical to that of the present times, is further fueling the data analytics and AI revolution. Owing to a number of interconnected devices, data-capture has become rather simplified. Easy computation of the same owing to AI has now opened floodgates of opportunities for business and data scientists to propel actionable insights for carrying out key business decisions.
AI is going to revolutionize Healthcare
When it comes to deciphering the impact of Artificial Intelligence in the businesses today, the global investment data has wonderful insights to reveal. Considering its huge impact in the field of healthcare, USD 400 million has already been invested in AI for healthcare. In fact, by 2020, the same figure is slated to rise up to USD 3 billion.
If AI were to have its way, doctors would be remotely able to monitor the health and progress of their patients. Via IoT devices and superior AI capabilities, doctors will be able to know before a patient goes into cardiac arrest and hence, will have a better window of time to plan the course of action. Apart from early stages disease diagnosis, AI will soon also be used to develop the medicine, by learning different chemical constituent for some diseases which is so far is difficult to develop through traditional research.
The Retail Sector is a close second
While the healthcare seems to be a definite area of impact, the retail industry emerges to be a close second in fetching AI investment. As of 2015, we have already seen USD 100 million worth of investment in AI for retail, and by 2020, the number is going to be a whopping USD 1.9 billion.
AI, with its smart algorithms and the ability to improve by analyzing more data, can help with some of the industry-wide challenges of forecasting demand, getting over logistical and supply chain problems. Besides, via smart computing, machine learning and big data analysis, discounting would be rendered obsolete, since retailers and e-commerce sites would know exactly how much to order, based on the previous customer data and futuristic trends.
The Consumer Side of Story
The consumers of today are interacting with the AI-smartened devices on a regular basis, without perhaps realizing the actual AI magic in action. For instance, an e-commerce site recommending a product that is just about perfect, or getting system generated the recommendation to watch the next movie, stream the next show or listen to the next audio, is in all certainty, the work of AI. This is merely one example of the AI recommendation engine, which ensures the consumers spend more time on a particular app or website while providing the best experience to the consumers.
Fashion enthusiasts must have already witnessed, and most probably appreciated, the visual search feature now available on several popular e-commerce sites, all thanks to AI. Just by uploading the image of their desired products, online shoppers can find the link to what they are looking for, without having to type, in elaborate and well articulate English, the product they are looking for.
In addition to healthcare, as mentioned above, the greatest AI revolution becoming a part and parcel of their lives is the advent of personal assistance. Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana are just a few popular names in the entire entourage of the emerging personal assistants. We are currently headed to a time where shopping, or hailing a taxi, booking a flight etc, would simply be a matter of a conversation between the end consumer and an AI-enable digital assistant.
Imagine, having a voice recognition software that helps you with the directions on your way back home and if you were to feel hungry, would also book your seat in a restaurant en route, based on your past behavior and food preferences.
While India may seem to have become aware of AI and big data analytics a tad-bit late, we stand at the cusp of opportunities in the present times. AI, along with big data analytics, is set to bring about an evolution. However, technology today calls upon different stakeholders in the Indian ecosystem to come together and facilitate the transition to happen.
Atul Rai is the CEO and Co-founder, Staqu, an artificial Intelligence startup, revolutionizing the fashion e-retail and ecommerce industry.
