How to take advantage of Artificial Intelligence?

One of the most popular technologies in recent years (for different reasons) has been Artificial Intelligence. Much has been discussed about this technology: either we praise the improvements it allows in areas such as health, retail or industry, or we fear that all these technological advances that AI (Artificial Intelligence) has allowed in recent years will extinguish a significant amount of jobs on which our society currently depends.

We can say with some confidence that you will have crossed paths with the concept of Artificial Intelligence at some point in your life. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, we can define it “as the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence”. As such, and because this technology simulates and reproduces some human behaviours, we can recognise the enormous disruptive impact it is already having on our society. We know that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will eventually transform every job, business, and industry in the world.

But regardless of the advantages or potential limitations that Artificial Intelligence (AI) may have, it’s an unavoidable fact that this technology is proving to be one of the most impactful for our economy. There are countless opportunities for companies to take advantage of the best that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has to offer. The proof is the growing number of pioneers in AI – examples include Microsoft, GAFA [Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple], IBM, Alibaba, Tencent, JD.com and Baidu – that continue investing in Research & Development in different areas of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and that with their investment, prove the viability of the technology for “real life” cases.

The fact that several companies worldwide are investing and applying – in different ways – this technology in their business realities shows the relevance that AI has for the business fabric of our economy and the potential it has to revolutionise companies’ business models. How, then, can companies start? What are the use cases that you can start implementing in your reality?

Futurist and author Bernard Marr in his book Artificial Intelligence in Practice – How 50 successful companies used AI and Machine Learning to solve problems, states there are three different use cases that, while they may overlap, are important in helping segment and identify implementation opportunities for this technology. Companies can use AI to:

• Change the way they understand and interact with their customers;
• Offer smarter products and services;
• Improve and automate critical business processes.

Any use case that we identify may fit into at least one of the above purposes. But we are also able to map different use cases to implement with this technology, depending on the industry in which you operate:

While this is not an exhaustive list of existing use cases for AI technology, it does help companies map out not only why they want to implement this specific technology but also the specific problems they will solve and the needs they will address.

For several years now, as a tech company, we have been investing in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to find real-life scenarios where this technology can effectively make a difference in the daily lives of companies. We have two different approaches when considering projects involving this technology:

• AI as-a-service, where we use pre-packaged AI services, incorporating greater intelligence into the solutions we develop – an example is Azure Cognitive Services.
• Data Science, where we look at the challenge from different perspectives, and the aim is to create the best possible solution, using specific technology or models defined according to each client’s reality.

If you’ve already considered implementing this technology in your company but don’t know where to start, challenge us to help you understand where and how AI can be implemented in your business.