AI (Artificial Intelligence) continues to be red hot. Then again, every top tech company is investing heavily in the technology, such as Amazon.com, Facebook, Microsoft and Google.
But AI is more than just about big companies. Keep in mind that the technology is getting much easier and affordable to use.
“We are seeing the democratization of AI through open source algorithms, affordable computing power and AI specialized hardware,” said Roy Raanani, who is the CEO and founder of Chorus.ai. “Google TensorFlow released open source software to allow anyone to build on Google’s own machine learning algorithms. Also the introduction of AI specialized hardware by Apple, Google, Tesla and NVIDIA is increasing AI performance by tens to hundreds, and enabling that performance in smaller form factors.”
Then what may we see next year? What are some of the emerging trends?
Here’s a look:
Video and AI will Make Voice the Last Frontier in Business Communications
Santi Subotovsky, General Partner, Emergence:
“We’ve already seen a huge rise in revenue generating applications that combine voice and AI to improve human interactions, sales, and customer service. In 2019, we’ll see new applications that, among other capabilities, will allow enterprise users to employ voice, AI and video to capture and analyze content, interpret non-verbal cues, and quickly respond to queries for data needed in discussions. The increased productivity, efficiency and insights provided by these applications will shift the center of business communications from text to face-to-face meetings, bringing voice and video full circle from the first to the last frontier.”
AI Smart Features Will Improve Meetings
Oded Gal, Head of Products, Zoom Video Communications:
“We believe that in 2019, video meetings will surpass other means of business communications to become the de facto standard. Why? Because video communication has more AI-driven ‘smart’ features than ever and those technologies can dramatically improve meeting productivity and the user’s experience. For example, AI-based features such as voice-to-text transcription can take meeting notes, and soon, virtual personal assistants will record tasks and help set up meetings, and voice recognition will identify meeting participants and provide relevant details on their background. Together, we believe that these features will make many video meetings superior to in-person meetings.
“Additionally, we predict that AI-driven facial recognition will be used in video conference rooms for a variety of purposes. For example, insights into who has used the conference room, when, and for what purpose will also help IT and Facilities staff better plan space allocation and usage.”
Chief Analytics Officer (CAO) or Chief Data Officer (CDO) Roles Will Become More Prevalent
Candace Worley, Chief Technical Strategist, McAfee:
“There are myriad decisions that must be made when a company extends their use of AI. Implications exist for privacy regulation but there are also legal, ethical, and cultural implications that warrant the creation of a specialized role in 2019 with executive oversight of AI usage.
“In some cases, AI has demonstrated unfavorable behavior such as racial profiling, unfairly denying individuals loans, and incorrectly identifying basic information about users. CAOs and CDOs will need to supervise AI training to ensure AI decisions avoid harm. Further, AI must be trained to deal with real human dilemmas and prioritize justice, accountability, responsibility, transparency and well-being while also detecting hacking, exploitation and misuse of data.”
Trust AI the Same Way You Trust Your Doctor in 2019
Nick Caldwell, Chief Product Officer, Looker:
“In 2019, interpretability (the ability to understand how an AI system works) will become a nice-to-have. Think about it: when you visit the doctor's office to get a diagnosis, you never once ask them to provide all their reference materials, case studies, comparative patient records, etc. to prove their point. At some level you accept that the doctor is an expert and you trust them. If that is okay, why do we hold AI to a higher standard of interpretability than we hold other humans? The reality is that over the past few years AI has begun to exceed human capabilities and 2019 is the year we will begin to accept it. As humans we do not need to fully understand why AI's make decisions and maybe the systems can become better and faster when we decide to get out of the way.”
Tom (@ttaulli) is the author of the book, Artificial Intelligence Basics: A Non-Technical Introduction.
