Artificial Intelligence Goes Vertical in 2018

Armughan Ahmad is SVP and GM of Solutions for Dell EMC.

As we move furiously through 2018, media, analysts and tech enthusiasts are thinking about what will be ‘the next big thing’ in technology. It was clear that 2017 was a hallmark year for artificial intelligence (AI) enthusiasm and awareness, where more industries and organizations embraced digital transformation and came to view their data as a critical corporate asset. But we’ve only scratched the surface. Building off that momentum, 2018 will be the year that AI adoption reaches critical mass among organizations and professionals.

Imagine what the world would be like if we could harness the multitude of data generated each day to catalyze positive change. What if we had the ability to predict and stop crimes before they happened, or could apply these same methodologies to save lives with better healthcare? With recent AI advances, these outcomes are not only possible, but a very tangible and very exciting reality.

When deployed strategically, AI technologies equip organizations to derive actionable data insights across almost every industry, including energy, transportation, education, research, entertainment, hospitality and so many more. In 2018, the financial services, retail, healthcare and life sciences, and manufacturing industries will realize quick results with human-machine partnerships. Specifically, we can expect to see the following:

The Healthcare Industry Standardizes Efficiency

There is an abundance of image data for many medical ailments being used to train AI models to detect these conditions earlier and more accurately. Early results are so promising that many healthcare providers will regularly use deep learning solutions to support the diagnosis of cancer and other severe conditions this year. The impact of AI in healthcare will be both wide and deep and as healthcare records become progressively digitized, they will help researchers understand health risks, improve detection and monitoring of conditions, and even predict health issues before they arise. The era of personalized medicine will be furthered by pairing AI technologies with increasingly comprehensive and blockchain-secured data from IOT and other sources that complement lab results and caregiver observations.

Financial Data Becomes Optimized

Financial services companies already possess vast data sets and conduct advanced analytics on business and customer trends. This expertise fosters an ideal culture for evaluating and adopting more powerful insights, as data becomes fuel for deep learning approaches. Artificial intelligence can be used to optimize all facets of financial data reporting, from risk assessments and growth projections to client satisfaction and fraud prevention. The ROI of attracting new customers is easily measured, and in 2018, these organizations can further improve performance by better understanding customer needs and reducing fraud and security breaches. As AI enables automated financial decisions at scale, it will converge with another disruptive technology, blockchain, to secure and validate automated transactions.

Manufacturing Leverages Market Predictions to Reduce Cost

Cost reduction is of the utmost importance to the manufacturing industry, whether the costs of components, failures, or maintenance. The ability to predict global supply chain costs and customer demand, and intercede before they occur, runs parallel to the advances in the financial services industry mentioned above. Embedded within manufacturing facilities and complex equipment are sensors that measure item productivity and environmental conditions that impact reliability and maintenance, like power, temperature and stressors.

Retailers Use Better Market Understanding to Maximize Profit

Retail has many uses to implement AI solutions, such as understanding the target markets of products, improving advertising with personal information, and detecting fraudulent online purchases and theft in brick-and-mortar stores. This year, these capabilities will increasingly become mainstream for small and mid-sized retailers. Retailers will continue to maximize profits by promoting offerings to the most likely buyers and predictively purchasing commodities by time and location. These AI-enabled successes set the foundation for future advances in retail operations, like implementing fully-automated customer support and autonomous product delivery operations.

Endless Possibilities

Artificial intelligence and machine and deep learning will continue to grow as all types of organizations understand the incredible power offered by solutions driven by the technologies. That said, the transformative results promised through artificial intelligence will not come without effort. To unlock the full capabilities of AI, organizations will have to do the heavy lifting of going “all in” on digital transformation, accelerating their computing methods and embracing data sovereignty. It will be critical for data to be extensive collected, curated and made available to all applicable uses cases.

AI is complex, but as organizations focus on simplifying and accelerating the journey, they will unlock its promise and potential throughout 2018.

Opinions expressed in the article above do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Data Center Knowledge and Informa.

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