Emerging AI is more than just a new technology. It ushers mankind into a new era. Some compare this technological expansion to the explosive engine or the industrial revolution, but it’s much more than that.
Now, for the first time in history, innovation is altering every aspect of our existence. Yet, when it comes to our most pressing issues, AI can offer solutions: climate change, increasing mental health disorders, aging society, lack of access to healthcare, waste management crisis.
In the last 20 years, electricity, computers, and the internet have fully unleashed their transformative power on society. Presumably, AI will either disrupt or completely transform industries in the next two decades, either by wreaking havoc or providing convenience, but possibly both while having a profound impact on the very structure of our economy.
Independently from frequently discussed pros and cons of artificial intelligence, the trend of rising AI implementation in multiple industries is here to stay. AI brings us to the fourth industrial revolution happening now, with an expected total economic impact of $15.7 trillion until 2030.
To avoid misunderstanding, let us define how artificial intelligence differs from machine learning. AI refers to the science of understanding and replicating human intelligence, whereas Machine Learning (Algorithms) is fed large amounts of data (Big Data) combined with extraordinary computing capacity.
Because today’s MI systems are created for a certain task or purpose, they cannot mimic human thinking as a whole or switch between specialized tasks.
However, in the near future, these Algo systems will be smoothly connected and capable of higher performance levels.
Education
AI may design highly personalized lectures, curriculums, and exercises for each student, addressing each child’s particular learning pace, and may even teach them using their favorite cartoon characters. Not only improving their weaknesses faster and more efficiently but also making learning enjoyable.
Food Industry
Gastrograph AI is a platform to interpret and forecast flavor preferences for over a billion unique consumer segments. Instead of reacting to consumer perception, they used AI to predict it, reducing time to market.
And yet, would this AI have invented Coca-Cola or McDonald’s? That is very unlikely.
However, creating breakthrough products that transform entire industries and creating a new category in and of themselves may always be a human privilege due to our nature, just as deep creative work and thinking in highly abstract terms are.
Perhaps AI’s role is to provide more options to pursue. After all, not every business and product is or must be Coca-Cola or McDonald’s. Instead, it can empower entrepreneurs and businesses to evolve, be more efficient and ecologically conscious.
Personalization in the food industry sounds like a fascinating idea, but companies must remember the disadvantage of overdoing it, which might take away a product’s shared context. Based on your data, search history, previously liked items, and customer profile insights, you might be one step away from getting your own Ben & Jerry’s ice cream or custom-made pizza.
However, the pleasurable, tingling sense of shared preferences with others is a vital uniting force upon which our society, especially western ones, was formed, and it’s also the secret to success for many great corporations, such as Starbucks. Over-personalization is difficult to achieve without sacrificing the social experience a brand can deliver.
Frontend Development
AI leads to faster digital testing and forecasting product prototypes before spending time and money in extensive product development, thereby reducing time to market. It is estimated to increase productivity by more than 20% while decreasing product launch time by 17%.
For example, instead of traditional A/B testing, Yelp used artificial intelligence for front-end testing on over 700 trials simultaneously and saving time to market by more than 20%.
Healthcare
AI-powered medicinal research offers the door to low-cost solutions for previously incurable diseases. Formerly, developing these drugs was unprofitable given to a small segment of potential patients.
Similarly, in the nutritional supplement market, algorithms are used to create customized supplement packets based on your data on a monthly subscription basis.
Another use of artificial intelligence in healthcare is voice-based mental disease diagnosis. Voice patterns have long been studied and identified as indicators of mental diseases. It is also possible to associate more accurate voice-based biomarkers with particular disorders using big data and algorithms.
Product Design and Safety
AI can forecast if a product is unsafe, useless, flawed, or unable to meet demand and helps adjust the product development process accordingly. For example, a study trained AI models to predict food product recalls from Amazon reviews with a 74% accuracy.
The AI-powered software then identified thousands of potentially unsafe food products that had previously gone undetected using Amazon reviews.
You may flip that to find the best products and compare them to yours. Then, AI can determine if they will be successful and what components or features you need to change for success.
This concept isn’t too far-fetched because publishers already use algorithms to determine if a book will be successful.
Farming and Pets
Would you buy an AI-powered device that attaches to your pet and warns you when it is sick, hungry, has a fever, is hurt, or is entirely content? It’s only a matter of time before you can get one for your furbaby.
That may seem far-fetched, but Americans are expected to spend a record-breaking $99 billion this year on everything pet-related, from food to veterinary care.
Agriculture is for sure one of the most fertile industries for machine learning and AI. Several livestock farmers are already using such sensors to notify them when their animals have a fever or need to be visited by a vet. This device is implanted in their stomach to help them live healthier lives.
Elderly Care
An aging population is definitely one of the most significant pain points of western democracies that will face a big boom in the coming years.
AI can help with catering to the elderly by food preparation, reaching high things, tracking movement, mowing lawns, cleaning windows, bathing, hygiene, and other tasks, hence aiding them in remaining independent and comfortable in their own homes.
Not having to share these humiliating, vulnerable moments with humans, thereby preserving one’s dignity, is a beneficial and rarely discussed emotional value of having a robot AI aide.
Personalization and Customer Experience
AI has taken customer segmentation to an entirely new level. It allows assessing your clients’ anticipated path of behavior and sales funnel easier and offers personalized solutions to establish deeper customer relationships. Genuine connections, as well as emotionally captivating, memorable content, are required to build brand engagement.
Marketing
We can use AI to collect extensive data and create highly personalized campaigns with emotionally engaging content. Artificial intelligence is capable of perceiving and employing emotional cues and languages in the same way that humans do.
In the world of marketing, AI can act as a “humanizing tool,” bringing your audience closer to your brand by giving your content a consistent voice, tone, and personality.
Employee Experience
When it comes to utilizing AI, some aspects of business development are underrepresented. In light of the recent Great Resignation sweeping not just America, companies strive to improve employee experiences by incorporating AI to identify and alleviate pressure points, rather than focusing solely on ROI and their paying customer base.
Numerous studies have shown that companies that genuinely care about and take steps to improve their employees’ well-being outperform those that do not.
Product recommendation systems
AI is widely used in enhanced product recommendation systems by companies like Amazon and Sephora to suggest items or information to customers employing complex data analysis techniques.
For example, you can choose the tone of the right cosmetics for you without applying makeup in several Sephora stores; Color IQ analyzes your face and recommends personalized cosmetics.
The Problem of Authenticity
Creating more personalized and emotionally stronger customer experiences with AI is a genuine prospect, yet the question of how authentic they would appear arises. People and their minds are fine-tuned machines evolved in communities and, in some way or another, require social connections and validation from each other.
This means that we are fine-tuned to tell if something is not genuine or “fake.” Companies that can fuse the possibilities of AI with added humane and genuine emotional value will create the ultimate user experience.
When experts imply that AI will not replace the majority of jobs but rather morph them into something more meaningful, they mean precisely that.
Humans can finally focus on what we’re good at; connecting, being sensitive to the human experience, expressing our creative force, and avoiding what we’re not meant to do: boring, repetitive, soul-crushing tasks that require only automation, but not humanity itself.
Artificial intelligence is our existing game-changing reality, bringing massive profits to the table by providing more value in less time at a lower cost. Any company that fails to implement it early will be left in the dust by its competitors.
AI in 20 years may look radically different from what we expect now. Thus, predicting future technology and its implications is far more complex than simply forecasting capabilities.
Claiming that the very nature of AI poses a threat to humanity is simply ignorant. Plenty of the possible downsides stem from humans shaping and instilling AI with their ideologies and biases, disrupting their vast potential.
Moreover, the issue isn’t AI. The issue is ancient and has existed since the dawn of society, with AI providing a new reflection on it.
