Vasant Ramachandran discusses why you should incorporate AI in business applications in this in-depth presentational blog. For more information, please visit VasantRamachandran.com!
2. INTRODUCTI
ON
Artificial Intelligence, or AI, is one of the most
misunderstood technologies in all of industry. Like
blockchain, the cloud and various other innovations
that are long on hype and short on details, artificial
intelligence’s biggest limitation is the fact almost
nobody understands what it is or how it works.
Further, most of the people who stand to benefit the
most from its adoption frequently mistake it for other
far less useful things.
In order to make use of a technology, especially in
business, it is crucial that the early adopters not only
understand what it is, but how it can be utilized to
benefit their company. All the great advances and
innovations in the world can’t help a company if there
are no practical applications for them in day-to-day
operations. If you are considering investigating AI as a
potential tool for your company, you should start by
not mistaking it for something else.
3. AI is not a technology that answers questions. It asks
questions. This is the fundamental disconnect between
computers appearing to be advanced and impersonating
intellect versus actually exhibiting intellect. Artificial
intelligence must first have the ability to learn and to do so
independently of any outside influence. Some might argue
the ability to feed information into a computer has been
available since the Difference Engine in the early 1800s. The
first digital computer, called ENIAC, came along more than
120 years later. Nobody would argue either machine was
intelligent. Therefore the simple ability to collect
information from whatever source shouldn’t be a criteria for
AI.
NOT WHAT
YOU THINK
4. BUSINESS
APPLICATI
ONSMost of what passes for AI now, especially in a business
context, is simple pattern matching. Finding a pattern in a
dataset is neither new nor advanced. In fact it is one of the
most widespread functions in all technology. The Structured
Query Language (SQL) and all the databases it powers use
pattern matching on a nanosecond by nanosecond basis all
over the world.
To incorporate true AI into a business application, the
computer would observe and experiment with the data on its
own. Like a chess-playing machine, it will perform all the
possible calculations and then sort them by effectiveness. This
is where a business will find its first application for AI: By
setting the rules that describe success. This is the key reason
considering AI for your business is so valuable.
5. TEACHING
YOUR
OWN
COMPANY
It has long been said the fastest path to understanding a
subject is to teach it. With AI as your student, you will be
placed in a position where you will have to set the
conditions for success. This will force you to consider things
about your business you may not have thought about
before. Even if you end up not using AI in your operations,
by performing this basic task you will have given yourself a
crucial advantage. Most of your competition will likely not
have given the subject the same thought.
