What are the top AI trends to watch out for in 2021?
This year Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning should be on everyone’s radar. Even without the impact from COVID-19, the AI industry was poised to see tremendous growth last year. And now the only way Artificial Intelligence will go is up. So, what are the top AI trends to watch out for in 2021?
In the past couple of years, we’ve helped many clients develop and implement AI solutions in their companies. This has helped us gain valuable insights in this field and its future and we want to share what we think will be the essential trends in Artificial Intelligence this year.
The ethical use of AI
We’ve put this at the top of our list to highlight the importance of this topic. Ensuring that AI solutions are fair and transparent. Artificial Intelligence is already being used in areas that are quite sensitive such as deciding who gets loans or giving out sentences.
This means that we need to start paying better attention to the data we feed to these algorithms and make sure that companies are transparent. This means open access to analyze how they work and check whether they are fair or just perpetuating mistakes from the past.
So, the era of the black-box AI will start to become a thing of the past. If we want to make sure that AI is accepted and seen as trustworthy, we need to talk about its role in several areas of concern such as deep fakes, how the data it uses is protected, or algorithmic biases, to name a few.
The bottom line is that AI solutions are a tool, and just like any other tool, they can positively or negatively impact our lives. It is up to us to decide how we want to approach this topic.
Automation
This year we will likely see a more significant focus on combining RPA with AI and Machine Learning. Each solution has some critical limitations that impact how effective it can be for today’s organizations.
But we will probably be seeing increased use of Artificial Intelligence geared towards structuring unstructured data such as images, videos, or emails. These, in turn, can then be taken over by Robotic Process Automation to create a defined output.
Expect to see this trend in various business areas such as customer service, plant automation, health tracking, etc.
Visual Search
As people continue to rely more and more on e-commerce rather than conventional stores for their shopping needs, we will likely see a push towards a simpler and more efficient customer experience on websites.
And this means a move from traditional keyword searches towards visual search algorithms powered by AI to ensure a smooth online shopping experience. And it’s something we desperately need. Just imagine going through all the products in your local hypermarket or favorite clothes store online without an efficient way of sorting and searching.
Cybersecurity
Another critical area of interest is Cybersecurity. As more data moves online to ensure ease of use and more people work remotely, hacking risks have grown exponentially – from DDoS attacks to malware or Ransomware.
And no company is safe. Adobe, Google, Sony, Amazon, or Microsoft are just some of the businesses which have suffered from various data breaches. Just recently, a hacker attempted to poison the water supply of a city in Florida. It’s not just a question anymore of identity theft or unwanted purchases on your credit cards but life and death.
While no solution is 100% safe, Artificial Intelligence can reduce risks by analyzing a user’s behavior to check for any abnormalities. It can conduct security maintenance and analysis, increase the speed of detection of security breaches, and more.
IT operations
If there is one department that has undoubtedly felt the pressure of 2020, it’s the IT department. All employees working from home means an increase in issues such as connectivity or access to internal systems. Or checking and solving technical challenges remotely, usability challenges, and more. It was hard enough to tackle them when everybody was in the same office.
So, we will probably see a move towards AI solutions that can take some of the slack and independently solve common malfunctions that IT departments spend time-solving every day.
How does this impact you?
If you don’t have any AI solutions currently implemented in your company, this is an excellent time to start. If you have already implemented Artificial Intelligence solutions, know that 2021 will bring a whole host of opportunities for you to upgrade or introduce it to new processes in the company.
And whether you’re just beginning your AI journey or looking to take it to the next level, we’re here to help. You can book free 60-minute consulting session with us and talk about how AI can work for you.