Artificial intelligence (AI) has been in development for a long time and the technology is growing relevance and ability to turn whole industries upside down. The AI global market is growing rapidly where it is expected to hit $60 billion by 2025. Considering that the market was only $1.4 billion in 2016, the potential is enormous. This article looks at the vital statistics of AI and why businesses need to consider incorporating the technology for survival in the future.
According to a 2017 report by PWC, consumer confidence in the ability of AI to solve previously intractable problems is unprecedented. In particular, the report established that 63% of AI consumers see more potential for good in AI than negative impacts. The consumers agreed that AI would be central in the attempt to solve complex problems that face man today.
The growing significance of AI
This significance of AI is evident in the growth of the number of jobs which require skills in the technology. Data from Indeed and other jobs sites show that since 2013, jobs requiring AI skills grew by four and a half times. Interestingly, the data revealed that most of the jobs that require such skills originate from the US. However, Canada and the UK are following closely with rapid growth. Notably, Canada accounts for 5% of the jobs while the UK accounts for 27%.
Majority of the AI pioneers believe every company that wants to remain relevant in the future must have an AI strategy. During the 2018 Artificial Intelligence Global Executive Study and Research Project organized by MIT Sloan Management Review, organizers established that AI is taking on a new significance in organizations. To be sure, technology is enabling value creation in companies. Also, companies can generate revenue by focusing on various AI applications.
In particular, AI is revolutionizing individual industries in ways never seen before. Some of them are discussed below.
Customer experience
The business landscape is quite dynamic, and enterprises need the best customer insights to stay ahead of the competition. Notably, the businesses need information that can help them keep a finger on the pulse of customer attitudes and the rapidly changing behavior. A Forrester report found out that firms that rely on customer insights need the means to scale their competence beyond use cases focused on commerce and specific marketing.
Interestingly, the combination of big data technology and AI will help to take customer insights to the next level. In particular, AI enables the business to gain unprecedented access to customer insights through novel cognitive interfaces.
Managing of staff
One of the most prominent cases against AI is that it will take away jobs from people. Be that as it may, the technology is of primary use to employers. For a long time, employers have had to face sudden resignations by critical staff hence throwing the whole business in disarray. However, IBM said recently that it developed AI applications can predict a potential resignation 95% of the time. As such, employers will have enough time to prepare for the vacuum that departing employees might leave.
Automation of certain business operations
Automation is the core of the fears that employees have toward AI. A 2017 report by McKinsey noted that AI and robotics are advanced in that automation is on another level. Interestingly, the machines can match or even surpass the performance of human workers in certain tasks. The advancement is critical such that some of the intelligent machines can outperform humans in tasks that need strong cognitive capabilities. According to the McKinsey report, automation has the potential to raise productivity by up to 1.4% every year.
