Artificial Intelligence. The phrase was coined in the 1950s by the “founding fathers” of artificial intelligence: John McCarthy, Alan Turing, Marvin Minsky, Allen Newell, and Herbert A. Simon.
Developments have since been rapid, with technology enabling a range of exciting and life-changing advancements.
AI is now present in all areas of our daily lives, visible or not. From marketing through to the medical field, most would agree that the positive benefits of developing and using AI have been huge.
According to Adobe’s 2019 Digital Trends Survey, nearly one third of companies were planning to invest in AI within 12 months, so if the predictions are true, many more companies will be jumping on the AI bandwagon. Given this, what trends can we expect to see in 2020?
More Transparency in AI:
Despite the many positive advances in AI tech, many don’t fully understand the technology and so it can seem frightening to some. This can be furthered by the media publishing concerns about how criminals may abuse AI, most notably the potential for foreign governments to potentially hack into election systems and obtain government secrets.
Due to concerns such as these and the increasing amount of data that AI can hold on each individual, we can expect to see a big push for more regulation in AI in 2020. In order for AI to be used to its full potential, trust is essential and transparency within the industry is a good way to achieve this. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a good step towards ensuring clearer legislation, and the tightening of laws around data will ensure that not only do members of the public know exactly what is happening to their data, but that companies act with the public in mind, ensuring they don’t fall foul of the law.
AI assistants will rise:
We no longer give a second thought to asking Siri, Alexa or Google for help with ordering a taxi, assisting with the shopping or providing entertainment. In fact, Amazon recently revealed that more than 100 million devices with Alexa assistant pre-installed have been sold and rival Apple have stated that Siri has 500 million active users.
By 2020 this is set to change. We’ll be seeing more AI assistants in the workplace, not just at home. Gartner has predicted that more and more office-based employers will choose to introduce AI assistants in the workplace to automate repetitive work and boosts productivity.
AI in this context can make a big difference. For example, in the IT department of a large corporate company, the IT department spend the majority of their time fielding menial and repetitive questions from colleagues. With the help of AI assistants, workers could direct these questions to specifically programmed AI, freeing up the IT department to focus on bigger issues.
AI will become your career sidekick:
Employing the use of AI doesn’t mean replacing staff. Often AI will work alongside people to improve and assist with tasks. Many sectors use AI to ensure the best possible outcome. A good example is the medical field. Often surgeons use AI assistants to ensure good results and AI has become a key component in accurate diagnosis and patient files.
It would be easy to assume that these advantages of AI would only benefit those in the west, however entrepreneurs such as Tej Kohli are investing heavily in AI and ensuring that it is available in the developing world, where it is needed more than ever to assist with health care and disaster relief. At the TKCI Corneal Institute for example, investment in AI has improved diagnosis and treatment and has therefore improved the lives of many suffering with cornea issues.
Ultimately the trends for 2020 are pointing to an integrated use of AI where it is used to assist rather than replace human counterparts and achieve good. These are advancements we could only have dreamed of 10 years ago and bodes the question of what accomplishments we will be achieving with AI’s help in 10 years’ time.
