Artificial Intelligence: A Conversational Future

"Everything that can be invented has been invented" This is a widely circulated quote that can be traced back to Charles H. Duell, Commissioner of the US patent office in 1899. He believed that the patent office would inevitably close down due to the notion that society had reached the point where there was nothing new to invent. Reflecting on that utterance 120 years later, we can only imagine what he would think of the world today, which, in comparison to the world in the early 1900s, is a dramatically different place. Fuelled primarily by technological advancements and new age inventions in recent years, society and all its facets have been completely restructured. 

Moore’s Law

Just over half a century later, in 1965, Gordon Moore, (Co-Founder of Intel) made the prediction that computing had reached a turning point and would begin to exponentially increase in power whilst simultaneously decreasing in cost. This prediction became known as Moore’s Law, and is now a pillar of the electronics industry as we know it today; an industry where innovation lies directly at the core. Fuelled by Moore’s Law, Intel is a technology company renowned for the creation and production of affordable and quality transistors (the little tools that, put simply, make our electronic devices ‘go’). 

Today, tomorrow and beyond:

Artificial Intelligence

One of the most significant modern trends to take the world of technology, and subsequently the business landscape, by storm, is Artificial Intelligence (AI). Although the concept of AI has actually been around for a lot longer than most people realise, the transformation it has seen in modern years has been astounding. 

At the start of October, the Software Advisory Service team attended Microsoft’s Future Decoded. The Expo had a special focus on all things AI, with many different industry insight sessions based around the impact and utilisation of AI in an emerging marketspace. At one of the insight sessions, Liam Bennett, Cloud Technical Principal, and Tanaz Gould, Consultancy Directory, from Claranet encouraged the idea of moving beyond the hype of AI, describing it as ‘just code’. Bennett and Gould explored how easy it is for businesses who are just starting to embrace AI to get caught up in the glamorous complexity of such a perceived phenomenon; yet all it actually is is just a bit of code. A bit of code that gives businesses another way of using data they already have. In each case, utilisation is key. 

A tangible demonstration of the development of Artificial Intelligence in the workplace is the way businesses have started to use Chatbots across their online platforms. Chatbots are multifunctional, acting as automated doorways between customer and business, providing the customer with access to information at any given time. Chatbots also act, perhaps even more importantly, as a data collection tool and, therefore, a trend mapping tool. Businesses are able to use Chatbots to dig deeper into their audiences’ behaviour, and find out first-hand what questions are being asked… And then immediately provide the answers. This is where Bennett describes the future as conversational. 

“76% of UK organisations are unclear if they have an AI strategy in place at all” 

According to Microsoft’s Research Report announced at Future Decoded, 76% of UK organisations are unclear if they have an AI strategy in place at all. Contrastingly, organisations using AI are outperforming their competitors by 11.5%. 

So where to start?

According to Claranet, when tackling the implementation of AI, businesses should:

• Focus on the data and your data lakes
• Focus on deciphering your business outcomes 
• Find expert help

The concept of Artificial Intelligence offers promise of exponential growth within each industry landscape. Is your company keeping up?

By Sarah O'Donoghue 09.10.2019