Why in 15 years will all our organizations be based on Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
Lately we are hearing or reading many terms such as virtual reality, resilience, teleworking, artificial intelligence, disruptive systems, digital transformation, etc. I will try to expand the meaning of artificial intelligence, also known as AI.
According to Wikipedia, artificial intelligence is the intelligence carried out by machines. In computer science, an ideal “smart” machine is a flexible agent who perceives its environment and performs actions that maximize its chances of success at some objective or task.
But what we imagine when we listen about AI and what it really means is not always the same and many times we ask ourselves if AI is something positive or negative for our society and our environment, does it subtract or complement us as human beings.
AI is not an independent element capable of thinking and making its own decisions, but we can be close to the thought that through AI we can increase our human skills, which contributes to improving the benefits of our organizations. We could say that human intelligence could be replicated through the use of toolboxes, software and data to help us analyze our own data, perform repetitive tasks, automate processes, generally increasing our productivity. How the AI is doing that? The answer is by interacting with the real world through technological capabilities such as visual, voice, audio recognition, word processing, tone, empathy and robotics, interactions that helps us to make predictions about aspects that may occur in our business environment, depending on our own decisions.
To better understand the interaction mechanism to which I was referring before, I will add a very important concept that is part of AI as an appendix and is called ‘machine learning’. What is it? It is a system that uses algorithms to learn in an automated way through previous experiences and that can serve to recognize patterns that can help, for example, to predict cancer cases, movements in the stock markets, stock situations, etc. As you can see, the algorithms can be used in such diverse fields, such as engineering, banking, medicine, microbiology, distribution and many other areas.
It is important to always keep in mind that the objective of AI is not to replace humans but to complement and increase human capacities.
I am going to put three practical and simple examples of AI that we already use in our daily life:
- The voice assistant for smart speakers, who already knows how to interpret our musical tastes and reminds us of those tasks that we routinely perform.
- Our online shopping experience is now enriched by specific recommendations based on previous shopping habits and tastes.
- Many of the homes are now automated, we enter the house without a key, we turn on the light only with the voice, we let Z-Wave smart home devices (IoT) communicate with each other and perform their function according to our previous preferences and habits .
A few years ago, I would say at the end of the last century at the beginning of the Internet era, it was already predicted that in a few years all companies will be companies on Internet and without a doubt we have got there, without being an expert in the field, I dare to say that in fewer years and with more speed, all companies will rely on this powerful tool called AI. We shall see.