AI Everywhere - The impact of AI on industries worldwide

The common goal of companies in today's data-driven world is to get smarter about where market opportunities lie, where bottlenecks in the supply chain are and where process improvements can be found. Data science has been the fuel for this trend, and now data science itself is getting smarter. Thanks to amazing advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and its sub-segments, machine learning and deep learning, companies are achieving new levels of efficiency in data analytics that affect their entire business. The increasing use of AI across all industries will drive significant growth over the next decade, with AI software revenues expected to reach nearly $90 billion by 2025. The presence of AI is tempting for data scientists and business leaders who want to make machines do the math to make the business smarter on a holistic level.

AI on the fast track

A leading indicator of growth in a market segment can usually be found by following the money trail. Investors and venture capitalists are always looking for big growth opportunities, and they are currently finding them in the AI sector. Forbes recently reported that the number of startups active in AI has increased by a factor of 14 since 2000, and VC investment in these startups has increased by a factor of 6 over the same period. At the same time, companies building and using AI applications are experiencing similar growth: the number of jobs requiring AI skills has increased 4.5 times since 2013.

IT is a major beneficiary of AI

Not surprisingly, the department that deals with data full-time - namely the IT organization - may be the biggest beneficiary of AI's capabilities. A Harvard Business Review study reports that between 34% and 44% of global companies surveyed use AI to solve employee technical support problems (imagine an intelligent answering system that streamlines common questions and resolves others), automate internal system improvements (machine code can be used to calculate where bottlenecks can be fixed), and ensure that employees only use technology from approved vendors (imagine an intelligent authorization engine that tracks daily updates and is aware of affiliated vendors and partners).

| AI is also cross-company

Where does AI fit into this picture? Some of the most common examples of AI in business include image recognition and tagging, patient data processing, location and mapping, predictive maintenance, forecasting and countering security threats, and intelligent techniques for recruitment and HR management. But perhaps the most active application of AI is in marketing and sales, where the intelligent use of data and the ability to learn from human interactions can bring great financial benefits. In a global survey by Statista, 87% of current AI advocates said they use or are considering using AI for sales forecasting and to improve email marketing. While sales forecasting is often automated by technology to some extent, it can be greatly improved by an AI agent monitoring and responding to customer interactions and changing market trends. Similarly, email marketers can create personalized marketing feelings through smarter targeting and content creation for different audiences.

The result is also important. McKinsey found that companies that benefit from AI initiatives and have invested in the infrastructure to support the scale of these initiatives achieve a three to 15 percentage point higher profit margin. Healthcare, financial services, and professional services saw the strongest increases in profit margins from the adoption of AI.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is already having a revolutionary impact in all areas. It can help transport workers predict arrival times or potential problems, or predict toxins in food grains. It can help scientists treat cancer more effectively and farmers figure out how to grow more food with fewer resources.

A 2017 PWC study calculated that global GDP will grow by 14% by 2030 as a result of AI, adding $15.7 trillion to the global economy.

Microsoft commissioned The Economist Intelligence Unit to produce a report entitled "Smart Economies", which takes a closer look at the impact of AI on business in specific industries such as manufacturing, retail, healthcare, financial services, and the public sector: AI's transformation of industries and societies", which interviewed more than 400 senior executives working in different sectors in eight markets - France, Germany, Mexico, Poland, South Africa, Thailand, the UK, and the US. The study aims to educate business leaders about the significant opportunities of AI across industries and countries.

The impact of AI on industry

It is a common misconception that the effects of AI take a long time to become visible, but in reality, the benefits can take weeks to materialize. AI has huge potential to improve human skills in a wide range of fields by exploiting the unique human capabilities of creativity and flexibility - human qualities that are difficult for computers to emulate.

|Manufacturing

The main use cases are research and development (29.6%), predictive analytics (28.4%), and real-time operations management (25.9%). According to a report by research company ARK last year, the price of industrial robots will fall by 65% by 2025. This could, of course, cause a tipping point in the demand for robots across all industries. For example, ABB's industrial robots, many of which run on Microsoft Azure, have created more than 200 solutions for manufacturers.

| Healthcare and life sciences

The main use cases are risk management and analytics (22.5%), social engagement (21.3%), and knowledge creation (21.3%). Ultimately, advances in AI will free up clinical staff to focus on and solve challenging problems, such as highly complex diagnostics. For example, Adaptive Technology uses AI to dismantle the immune system and prevent disease.

| Public sector

The public sector has a particularly high adoption rate of machine learning (34%), perhaps because of its commitment to making smart cities cleaner and safer and helping municipalities predict traffic, pollution and crime. Most respondents expect the private sector to lead AI-based innovation in their country and sector over the next five years (47%), although 41% expect it to be split evenly between the private and public sectors. For example, DataKind has a "Vision Zero" initiative using AI to reduce traffic fatalities and collisions in Bellevue, Washington.

| Retail

The main use cases are predictive analytics (32.9%) and customer service (30.6%). For example, hardware store chain Lowe's has partnered with Fellow Robots to deploy LoweBots, five-meter-long autonomous robots powered by Microsoft Azure that scan shelf inventory.

Key findings

Companies expect AI to have a positive impact on growth (90%), productivity (86%), innovation (84%), and job creation (69%) in their country and sector.

Nine out of ten managers around the world (94%) see AI as important in addressing their organization's strategic challenges.

More than one in four (27%) say their organization has already integrated AI into key processes and services, and 46% have one or more AI pilot projects underway.

While respondents often expressed concerns about job displacement, they were generally optimistic that AI will create new jobs. Overall, nearly six in ten respondents (59%) believe that AI will lead to higher wages, and 56% of respondents even see employment increasing in their country or
industry.

Surprisingly, respondents in developing countries are much more optimistic about the positive impact of AI: 83% of respondents in developing countries expect it to increase, compared to only six in ten in developed economies.

Examples of companies at the forefront of AI adoption
Here are some examples of how companies in different sectors are using AI in their business:

According to a McKinsey study, tech giants such as Baidu and Google spent between $20 billion and $30 billion on AI in 2016, with 90% of this amount spent on R&D and deployment and 10% on AI purchases. The current pace of AI investment is three times the growth in external investment since 2013.

Netflix has also seen impressive results with the AI algorithm it uses to personalize recommendations for its 100 million subscribers worldwide, improving search results and avoiding cancellations from frustrated customers who couldn't find what they wanted (potential impact of $1 billion in annual revenue).

Bloomberg, which specializes in financial information, uses techniques such as computer vision and natural language processing to improve the breadth of information available on its ubiquitous terminals, which financial professionals use to access market data. Users can use natural language instead of specialized technical commands for their queries, which are analyzed and executed by artificial intelligence.

Uber has a core team that provides out-of-the-box machine learning algorithms as a 'service' to mobile app developers, mapping experts, and autonomous driving teams. These capabilities will be used to better predict travel patterns and improve maps through computer vision, as well as to create algorithms for Uber's autonomous vehicles.

The Royal Bank of Scotland recently launched an artificial intelligence robot using natural language processing to answer questions from the bank's customers and perform simple banking tasks such as money transfers, to make digital customer support as effective as face-to-face interaction.

AI and machine learning are revolutionizing the way businesses use and process data to become smarter, more efficient organizations. And IT and data science teams are gearing up for the huge benefits AI will bring to their businesses. If you are looking for an AI developer there are many web development companies that help in building AI software for your business.