Artificial Intelligence (AI) or cognitive technology is no more about a machine playing chess. AI is on the streets driving our cars. It is in our call centres chatting up customers in dulcet tones. AI is drafting and reviewing legal documents with immaculate precision. It is even doing what we could never dream of: You can trade using indices derived from satellite imagery (of all the things!). It is almost as if you can take anything, sprinkle some AI dust on it, and have it reborn as super smart.
AI depends on analytical models and digital inputs in the form of vast and continuously flowing streams of data. The models quickly crunch the data and spew out insights with an uncanny human flavour. Some AI frameworks use Deep Learning and Machine Learning to create a loop of automated self-learning and unbroken evolution.
Organisations are realising that AI can be harnessed to create powerful real-time adaptive enterprises. In other words, we could have organisations that almost intuitively shape shift in response to the changing environment.
While it is easy to see that this is ground breaking ability, its real significance rests in the fact that organisations need no longer sweat over uncertainties. After centuries of trying to create stable organisations and economies, business leaders need not fear instability. With AI as an ally, they will come to embrace it. They will know that their digital ears, eyes, hands, legs and, we dare say, minds, will maximise each opportunity regardless of how unpredictable the environment may become.
A recent global study on AI called 'Artificial Intelligence in the Real World: The Business Case Takes Shape' done by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) on behalf of Wipro tells us which industries are embracing AI first and why.
All eyes on the US Healthcare sector
The study shows that the US healthcare sector leads the way with AI applications.
Expressed as an index, the AI implementation score across organisations represented in the survey is 2.40 on a 1-5 scale, where 1=nascent, 2=exploratory, 3=experimental, 4=applied and 5=deployed. This means many organisations that participated in the study are just months away from active experimentation.
The index score is highest in North America (2.61), which reflects the fact that labs and universities in the US have, over the years, already invested in fundamental AI research.
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