At the New York Times DealBook conference, Intel emphasized it was urgent that every company put an artificial intelligence (AI) strategy in place. The reason, in a word, is data. The data deluge continues to accelerate, with data points from the Internet of Things (IoT) alone expected to bring another 20 billion new sources of information within the next two years.

The amount of data coming into businesses exceeds the capability of humans to process it all. Companies need AI capabilities to enable new ways of making real-time business decisions, using machines that can process these vast quantities of data and learn from it. Having the right AI capabilities has already proven to make organizations more efficient and deliver a better customer experience—and a better bottom line.

AI Delivers Business Breakthroughs

AI can pay off in any number of ways. To cite a few real-world examples:

  • Energy companies are finding problems on distribution lines and performing predictive equipment maintenance at generation plants, thereby cutting operations costs vs. scheduled maintenance while maximizing uptime, and extending the life of expensive assets.
  • Financial organizations are analyzing documents to detect fraud, predict risks, enhance automated trading, detect money laundering and spoofing, and protect against cybersecurity threats. The result is higher turns and lower risk exposure.
  • Healthcare organizations are accelerating medical imaging analysis, discovering new drugs, and performing genomics and other research aimed at precision or personalized medicine. AI technology can also detect and correct massive waste, fraud, and abuse in healthcare spending.
  • Media and entertainment companies can analyze audience sentiment, detect emotion from interactions, and offer tailored audiences to advertisers, including localized content for audiences around the world.
  • Retailers are using AI to optimize the shopping experience, supply chain, marketing, merchandising, and customer loyalty programs, while correcting massive amounts of inventory distortion and internal loss.

None of this is pie-in-the-sky; it’s happening now. Early AI adopters across virtually all industries are exposing valuable information that exists deep within data they already have. AI paves the way to solve complex medical and scientific challenges, and better predict the behavior of events and people.

Image Credit:   iStock

Thanks to Paula Piccard for making us aware of this post. Follow her on twitter: @Paula_Piccard

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