Johannesburg, 25 Oct 2019
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a technological advancement that has revolutionised the global market completely. More and more companies and governments are investing in AI to aim for a better and more technologically driven future.
In order to gain knowledge in this field, young individuals have started opting for artificial intelligence courses, which prove to be very helpful. Companies also provide AI training to their employees to increase their skill sets in attempts to improve their business plans.
The year 2018 saw many changes in the trends followed in AI. This technology is constantly evolving, and you can see a new trend each day. However, there are some AI trends which absolutely ruled the market in 2018.
In order to know which trends made an impact on the industry last year, let’s first understand what AI is and why it is in such high demand.
What is AI and why is it popular?
AI is also known as machine intelligence and can simply be understood as the intelligence displayed by machines. Where natural intelligence is displayed by living beings like humans and animals, AI is displayed by machines such as robots.
These machines are capable of thinking independently and take decisions to complete simple as well as complex tasks. Even though AI is a product of human intelligence, it has made our lives easier and more advanced. AI holds no scope for human errors, and thus it is a very reliable and efficient technology.
AI has proved to be very useful in maintaining data and taking effective business decisions that help a company grow. It can also handle our day-to-day tasks and solve our problems in a matter of seconds. This is the reason why AI has gained so much popularity since its inception.
Let’s take a look at the current statistics on AI:
- 31% of entrepreneurs plan on adopting AI in the future, and 15% are already working with this technology, according to Adobe.
- 47% of well-established digital organisations have a well-defined AI strategy. Source: Adobe.
- 72% of business leaders believe that AI is a business advantage. Source: Adobe.
- AI is projected to reach a market value of $5.05 billion by the year 2020. Source: https://www.fool.com
- The annual investment level in AI technology has increased six-fold since 2000.
Having seen some of the statistics on how AI has changed over the past few years, it is clear that this technology is here to stay. This is the reason it has become a popular educational field for students and AI certification has become so important in today’s market.
Seven AI trends that were noticed in 2018
1. Speech recognition
This AI trend grew a lot in 2018. Speech recognition transcribes and transforms human speech into a computer-recognisable format. You can find a speech recognition feature in almost all newly launched systems. Many mobile applications and interactive voice-response systems use this AI technology.
A few of the voice recognition applications that we use from day-to-day life are mobile assistants like Siri, Cortana and Alexa.
2. Natural language generation
To convey a message in a straightforward manner, such that it does not get misinterpreted by the receiver, is very important. Humans fall prey to miscommunication very frequently, even after having the gift of six senses. How do you expect machines to process human language correctly?
Machines make the use of natural language-generation AI technology to solve this issue. This technology is used widely to generate reports and market summaries.
3. Machine learning
2018 also saw an increase in machine learning platforms. As the name suggests, machine learning is a branch of AI in which you make machines learn. How do you make it possible? You develop algorithms and techniques to make computers learn.
This trend has gained a lot of attention from business investors as it can help the business grow by a great deal. This technology is used mainly for classification and prediction purposes. Some of the major companies which have invested in this AI trend include Google, Amazon, Microsoft and others.
4. Chatbots/ Personal assistants
This is a very popular and favourite AI trend among companies, business and customers alike. These chatbots, or virtual agents, make our lives far easier by facilitating better decision-making and handling personal data with ease.
The virtual agents are put to use in customer services, personal management and company support. The companies that provide these chatbots include Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Artificial Solutions, Satisfi and more.
5. Decision management
AI has the capability to make profitable and wise decisions, which are logical, based on certain rules and not governed by emotion. Intelligent machines can be put to a variety of uses, like taking automated decisions for a company or even government
6. AI-optimised hardware
Machine learning was seen to be one of the heavily invested technologies in 2018. In the foreseeable future, machine learning/AI will be at the core of every software application. Many machines are specially designed to accommodate AI technology and perform efficiently.
Companies like Google, Cray, Intel, IBM and others have a strong focus on AI-optimised hardware systems.
7. Robotics
There were many robotic inventions in 2018. These inventions left the world star-struck and flabbergasted as no one expected AI to reach that level of success even a few years ago.
Robotics today is being used in many different fields, from medical to hospitality, agriculture and industrial fields. This is a smooth and efficient replacement for human labour and also far more affordable in the long run.
AI robots have not taken over the world, but they have proven to be useful assets for people and complement human abilities to enhance their functionality. This is the reason this technology has gained so much attention worldwide.
These AI trends ruled in 2018 and will continue to take over the coming year as well.
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