Artificial intelligence is no longer a science fiction trope—some futurists are calling AI “the fourth industrial revolution.” Machine learning algorithms are deployed for thousands of purposes across major industries. The world of IT and the future of AI are transforming. Many industries stand ready to take advantage of artificial intelligence and massively increase their efficiency. This goes for anything that concerns the supply chain management to human resources. Are we prepared for AI and the future of humanity?
The Future of AI
With the Internet of Things(IoT), nearly every device connects to Wi-Fi. These device connections produce an almost inconceivable amount of usable data—an amount well beyond our ability to manually process. Machine learning algorithms use technology that mimics neural networks to “learn” how to make use of this data. It, therefore, gives AI nearly limitless potential for optimizing different tasks.
While some of us are still forecasting what the future of AI holds, it has already made visible changes to the world. The next wave for AI is in business. We should watch out for the healthcare and marketing sectors where early adopters are already transforming their respective fields. These four industries could see the biggest changes as artificial intelligence goes mainstream.
Healthcare
The healthcare industry produces gigabytes upon gigabytes of patient data, posing a huge opportunity for AI integration. Managing patient data and information drains human resources. Moreover, human error costs thousands of lives per year through mistakes in prescriptions and medications. With the future of AI, doctors and administrative staff may see an end to menial tasks. These tasks include record keeping, significantly reducing the costs associated with healthcare.
The future of AI and its research potential is groundbreaking as well. New drugs take years to synthesize, test, and trial. AI could dramatically shortcut this process and revolutionize new advances in fields like gene editing. In the near future, machine learning algorithms could even crack the code behind various conditions and diseases like cancer that have evaded human researchers for decades.
The future of AI is changing the world in such a way that humans will have the best healthcare.
Marketing
Marketing as an industry is likely to experience a massive shift away from human input. Machine learning could begin to track the effectiveness of certain marketing techniques to design more effective advertising campaigns. This type of technology could quickly outpace human advertising campaigns, making many current marketing jobs obsolete. For example, a tool called PaveAI combines artificial intelligence with Google Analytics. It helps to improve your strategy and take specific actions that will increase leads and revenue. Additionally, other tools like Phrasee (AI for human language) and Automated Insights are already making waves as well.
However, the future of AI will not swallow all marketing jobs. New opportunities, expectedly, will open up as the industry shifts.
“Studies have shown that marketers are spending up to 80 percent of their day-to-day routine focused on data cleansing and preparation work — this is far too much time,” says Leah Pope, CMO of Datorama.
Companies and agencies that leverage AI could expand exponentially. Other traditional advertising companies will simply lose out. Marketers looking to future-proof their careers should embrace AI technology now before it takes over.
Finance
The finance world is accelerating to a breakneck pace. In 2011, a $300M transatlantic cable was laid to shave just six milliseconds off the communication time for international trades, giving some indication of speed margins. The finance service industry is already seeing the start of the future of AI takeover. Machine learning algorithms may soon be capable of predicting market trends and trading more efficiently than wall street’s best.
The future of AI has massive potential in fraud detection as well. Current human-driven detection systems are simply too slow to keep pace with the rapid evolution of security threats. An artificial intelligence system designed to learn and evolve alongside these threats could finally put an end to the arms race in financial security.
Also, companies like Yelp, Jet.com, and Airbnb already use machine learning algorithms to improve their threat detection systems, incorporating the technology alongside their human security experts.
Transportation
Self-driving cars are perhaps the most high-profile application of artificial intelligence. In 2004, the US Defense Advanced Research Agency (DARPA) held the first ever autonomous vehicle race in the Mojave Desert, and the winning vehicle traveled only 7.5 miles of the 142-mile track.
Roughly a decade later, AI has mostly unlocked the massive data processing needs of a self-driving car, finally bringing one of science fiction’s biggest promises into reality.
Furthermore, the future of AI in self-driving cars could improve driving safety substantially. Tesla’s first crop of almost-autonomous vehicles reduced their accident rates by 40%when self-driving technologies were turned on. Google’s self-driving fleet also managed to go over 1.3 million miles before being at fault for the first time in an accident in 2016.
With 40,200 human-caused road deaths in the US in 2016, the future of AI technology may, therefore, help save lives and one day make human operators obsolete. Autonomous vehicles will also result in more efficient driving, which will reduce traffic and save Americans an estimated 50 minutes a day on average.
AI and the Future of Humanity
Artificial intelligence affects many other industries in surprising or subtle ways while these four industries are already seeing the effects of artificial intelligence. Agriculture also benefits from AI and it can help fill the deficit created by labor shortages. The automation industry, the security sector, as well as banking retail, and manufacturing also experience the effects.
Some more pessimistic experts predict the future of AI as the ultimate job killer, but these industries are proving that rapid adaptation can keep pace with the technological shift— industry leaders that embrace the future of AI stand to gain the most as AI takes over. For these industries, any uncertainty in the future is just another opportunity for innovation.
