Accelerated interest in artificial intelligence means that individuals and businesses will need to understand the ethics, risks and impacts of what’s being unleashed.
Artificial intelligence’s (AI’s) impact on the big data landscape is unfolding in quantum leaps. International Data Corporation (IDC) says that worldwide revenues for big data and business analytics will grow from US$150.8 billion in 2017 to more than US$210 billion in 2020, at a compound annual growth rate of 11.9%.1
Large data sets and deep learning, a sub-set of AI, have recently emerged as the hottest tech trend with such tech giants as Google, Facebook, Amazon, IBM, Intel and Microsoft. Lined with deep pockets, they’re all actively investing in acquiring talent and developing AI hardware and software.
This accelerated interest in AI, in turn, will lead to a plethora of new risks, where the emergence of these new predictive models to make business decisions will increasingly come under the risk management accountability of the chief financial officer (CFO) or chief risk officer (CRO).
AI everywhere
The Internet of Things and AI are being woven into business practices and processes at an ever-faster pace and are set to disrupt every business and every industry. We’ve already seen the impact of credit scoring on financial services, and insurance firms evaluating customer risk profiles based on credit transactional history or payment history. AI will take that another step-up with the use of unstructured data and client interactions through chatbots.
As AI is enabling machines to interact with customers at an even more intimate level, marketers are using data not only to understand past trends, but also to predict future behavior. Predictive analytics is providing brands with the ability to automate marketing responses in any given customer situation, such as live webs, with intelligent agents connecting the dots and finding products, content or medical treatment specifically targeted to the consumer.