Cue in ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ Theme Song!
Not too long ago, mentioning the words Artificial Intelligence would have sparked a futuristic wave of thinking thanks to science fiction writers. Originally the term Artificial Intelligence was created in the 1950s based on the possibility that machines could act like humans to perform general tasks without the need of a human. The problem researchers had with this idea was that the human brain is just a tad bit hard to replicate. Today, Artificial Intelligence is becoming a reality because technology is constantly evolving. Forrester predicts that there will be more than a 300% increase towards investments in AI amongst all businesses in 2017. In 2016 there was almost $1.5 billion invested in just the first half of the year. It’s no wonder that AI is a buzzword among the tech industry!
You don’t have to be working in the tech industry to have access to AI, you and I are actually interacting with it on a daily basis. If you use a smartphone, laptop or any other smart device chances are you have had an encounter with AI. Having a hard time deciding what to watch on Netflix tonight? Based on your past viewings, Netflix has some suggestions because it employs AI to recommend shows to you.You may have wondered how Google predicted your most recent search- yep that was AI too. Siri and Cortana act as your own personal assistant through the use of voice processing. Facebook uses machine learning to filter newsfeed recommendations and image recognition to identify photo tags. Amazon’s Alexa uses machine learning algorithms to help create a more personalized experience for shoppers by recommending products suited to them. UPS uses machine learning to determine delivery paths for its 55,000 daily routes around the world. All these companies are using machine learning algorithms to react and respond in real time to have an impact on how you go about your day to then make it easier.
While there are several technologies used to enhance AI, there are two main ones: Adgorithms and Automated Insights.
Adgorithms, work by using predictive analytics to execute on data-driven actions and act on unpredicted situations
Automated Insights, generates human-sounding narratives based on data.
Artificial Intelligence brings these technologies and processes together to make machines work smarter and to have the ability to discover insights, suggest predictions, and strategize recommendations.
Not only does AI increase efficiency but it reduces the chances of critical mistakes to be made. By detecting unusual patterns like payment fraud or spam filtering, AI can notify businesses about suspicious activities.
It’s easy for organizations to get lost in the hype of application versus results when it comes to AI. So before diving into the world of Artificial Intelligence and purchasing software, it's best to look to see if there are pre-built apps available. Organizations that use Salesforce are offered access to their pre-built AI app “Einstein.” Einstein was released this past September and is ideally used to enhance the Salesforce Service Cloud. Einstein was designed to be your own data scientist that helps make suggestions to in the end to better serve clients. It uses all of your data to make predictions based on your processes to then make suitable recommendations. This allows more free time to connect better with your important audiences.
Recently, Salesforce and IBM revealed an iconic partnership to combine Salesforce’s Einstein and IBM AI Watson’s to power greater insights, new applications and ultimately success for their customer’s. The two are coming together by using Einstein's customers data and Watson’s data on weather, healthcare, financial services, and retail to boost predictive analytics for customer success! Our CEO Doug Girvin has written a blog post on the recent collaboration between Einstein and Watson and how we are a partner with Watson.
As a marketer, it can be time-consuming to plan blog post topics, discover keywords, personalize and automate content, schedule social shares, test landing pages, and review analytics. If a machine was able to accurately create those tasks it would free up the marketer to enhance the recommendations. It would help us marketers, to optimize the content to ensure what we’re creating is actually relevant based on their behaviour.
Have no fear tho machines are not planning to take over anytime soon! While advanced machines may replace low- skill jobs, AI technology lacks a key component which is intuition. As of right now, instinct can’t be replaced or replicated which means that there is still room for humans (phew!). This is when AI technology and humans will work off of each other's strengths to be able to work harmoniously to solve problems. Because of AI, there’s an increase in workplace productivity and efficiency.
There has been a shift towards how organizations provide better customer experiences by becoming more digital. Customers have completely different buying habits than they did five or ten years ago. It's up to organizations to explore new technology trends and take into consideration the impact it has on the customer experience. This is a new era in the customer experience and it's best to start experimenting now or else you will fall behind your competition! Artificial Intelligence will continue to be a growing technology with added advancements making it more of a disrupter in the future.
Do you want to be a digital disruptor? Take the next step in finding technology solutions and check out our Resource Hub for our OrchestraCMS Datasheets and Rethink Content Management!
Sources
Cognitive Content Marketing: The Path to a More (Artificially) Intelligent Future