i3 - January/February 2020 - 92

Business

By Scott Steinberg

FO RWA R D ST R AT EG I E S

cross the board, consumer technology leaders love to
emphasize products that feature cutting-edge aesthetic
designs. But thanks to the growing impact of artificial
intelligence (AI) technology: It's what's inside that counts. With
over 20.6 billion devices now connected according to Gartner,
and an estimated 1.7MB of data being created every second for
every person on earth, you can't judge a consumer tech product
by its cover. This also explains why over 80% of companies now
see AI-based ventures as a strategic imperative, per Boston
Consulting Group.
The predictive insights these solutions
offer help product designers provide
end-users with more unique (and personalized) features. But they also allow
businesses to make smarter decisions,
with the forward-thinking data that will
become crucial to anticipating customers' needs in coming years. With less
than 25% of organizations having started
down the path towards achieving selfawareness, it bears reminding. If you
haven't started exploring the possibilities
already, the time to begin implementing
smarter solutions is today.

AI and Machine Learning

Tech tools get smarter the more data
they ingest and are helping rapidly
transform entire industries. From health
care, banking, and retail to insurance
and transportation, industries are being
upended. AI-powered solutions allow
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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020

Your Smart Upgrade

AI is rapidly becoming commoditized
and enjoying more widespread availability. Many software providers now
offer off-the-shelf, turnkey
firms to rapidly digest the
The market for solutions for grabbing
mountains of customer
mission-critical intelliAI-powered
data they're collecting and
in real-time from
tools will top gence
translate it into actionable
virtually any data source.
$190 billion
business strategy. These
As a result, many providglobally in the ers can draw on dozens of
performance-enhancing
tech tools allow for huge
next five years. past projects and case
gains in productivity and
studies to provide simple
process improvements
grab-and-go templates to
including the ability to
use as a starting point to
free employees from routine chores to
speed up development of custom solufocus on more high-value tasks.
tions. Companies can mix and match
Predictably, manufacturers are leverentire suites of cost-affordable AI tools
aging these high-tech tools to detect
to help drive profit and productivity
flaws too minute to see before products
gains in a matter of weeks.
leave the factory and apply deep learnWith data now the new basic building
ing across industrial operations to
block of business success, the future
improve efficiency and output at scale.
belongs to those organizations who can
Likewise, distributors are using these
most rapidly monitor and decode the
advancements to more efficiently mansignals that the marketplace is sending
age inventory stock and fulfilment and
and translate those signals into smart
make smarter decisions at both the
business strategies. ■
I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

MF3d/Getty Images

AI Offers
a Smarter
Approach to
Business

warehouse and product aisle level.
High-tech retailers were among the first
to embrace AI technology, using it to
tailor messages and pricing strategies to
individual shoppers; provide customized
offers and discounts; and replace generic
search and support functions with personally contextualized conversations.
To put things in perspective: The market for AI-powered tools will top $190 billion globally in the next five years, and
over 75% of commercial enterprise applications are expected to use smart capabilities in the near future. More than half
of all businesses say investments in these
technologies will be the most significant
ventures they'll pursue this year, according to IDC. Meaning that for all the
stream-lining, optimizing and costcutting that AI promises to help organizations achieve: It's also driving growth
today. That's why eight in ten leaders cite
it as a transformative technology that
boosts productivity and creates job opportunities while bolstering the bottom line.

i3 - January/February 2020

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