Thoughts from NDR. The Artificial Intelligence Conference
As regular readers of the blog know, here at QTeam.Solutions, we are passionate about Artificial Intelligence. We like to work with it, implement it, read about it, and find what’s new in the world of AI. That’s why we couldn’t miss taking part in NDR. The Artificial Intelligence Conference. For you Sci-Fi fans out there, yes, the NDR comes from Isaac Asimov’s novel, the Positronic Man.
There were a lot of great presentations during the conference, and we would need much virtual paper to do them all justice, so we just wanted to highlight some key ideas which stuck with us after the conference.
AI requires increased computing power to do what it does
Many articles have appeared lately and talked about the increased energy that is required to power AI solutions. A recent one in Wired highlighted an algorithm that uses a robotic hand to manipulate a Rubik’s cube – the problem is that this feat required more than 1,000 desktop computers to do it. And as AI grows and evolves, the gains have started to become marginal compared with energy use.
Industry specialists and companies are aware of this, and several solutions are being worked on both in terms of hardware and software, including using analog computing.
Data and AI are linked together
We highlighted in one of our past articles that AI requires data to function. And probably when most of us are thinking about data we think about excels filled with sales figures, contracts in PDF form or feedback forms, for example. But this is just a small bit of the data that AI can use. A camera aimed at a shopping mall parking lot is also a treasure trove if used and analyzed correctly. It can highlight who’s coming and if they have been there before, spikes in traffic, potential bottlenecks, and more.
Speakers at the Artificial Intelligence Conference talked about how camera-based data can also help us restart the economy post-COVID. It can be used to make sure workers are using masks, that they are cleared to get back to work or whether surfaces are cleaned at specific times.
How AI is impacting decision making
Companies than apply AI solutions to their business get access to both customer intelligence and operational intelligence. This means that the entire decision-making process has to change.
Right now, most companies rely on what happened in the past to try to guess what will happen in the future. With Artificial Intelligence, we can transition from monthly or quarterly reports to real-time data, which requires a different set of skills and business strategies.
It will democratize and speed up access to data because we will no longer need to wait for it to be gathered, inputted in business intelligence solutions, aggregated, and then finally sent to the higher-ups to make their call. Everyone within an organization will see the data at the same time, making decisions faster than ever.
It doesn’t mean that intuition and gut feeling won’t play a role in how companies are run. But AI solutions can also add a layer of data and insights to help us test and refine our intuitions before we put them into practice.
What can you do?
One thing you can take away from the The Artificial Intelligence Conference is that it’s time to start looking at your business as a data generator. No matter the industry or size, every company generates data, and with the help of AI solutions, you can use it to increase profitability, reduce costs, streamline processes, test business hypothesis, and more.
We’ve helped many small and medium enterprises and start-ups develop or improve their own custom AI software. All you need to start this journey is a trusted partner. Get in touch with us and let’s talk AI.