Whether it’s to personalise social media feeds, spot friends in smartphone photos or pave the way for medical breakthroughs, artificial intelligence (AI) is being embraced by business and consumers alike. But it’s bringing with it concerns about its environmental impact, ethical implications and data use.
AI is already being used to automate digital tasks like data collection and preprocessing and physical tasks such as warehouse stock-picking and manufacturing processes. By freeing up human workers to focus on higher value and more creative work, companies can improve productivity and boost performance.
As a result, the use of AI in business is booming and, according to Gartner, will continue to grow rapidly over the next two years. This is largely because it is cost-effective and increases the efficiency of operations teams.
In addition, AI can help automate manual work, making it more efficient and safer for employees. It can also help reduce the time and cost of projects by helping with specialized, labor-intensive tasks like scheduling construction, and automating repetitive processes such as bookkeeping and supply chain management.
But AI’s most prominent role today is in generative AI, which is used to create original text, images, video and software code. The technology is based on deep learning, which uses a machine to learn from and make predictions based on data without being programmed for specific tasks.