Conventional wisdom on AI for a long time has been; it will Think, Act, Learn and even Look like us. Many researchers and enthusiasts have tried to pursue this dream by building humanoid robots, while others have focused on sub-specializations such as Computer Vision and Chatbots. AI has also demonstrated its ability to outperform humans when performing "Intelligent Tasks" (or rather playing games associated with Intelligence) such as Chess, Jeopardy and Go.
While many still continue to dream of AI opportunities others continue to fear it. For example, some beliefs include
Mass Media: AI will lead to mass layoffs and result in high unemployment rates.
Popular Culture: AI will take over the world.
Business World: "Why Companies That Wait to Adopt AI May Never Catch Up" - Harvard Business Review
Scientists: AI is hitting (going to hit) a brick wall (soon)
Unconventional Wisdom and Current Status
“I am telling you, the world’s first trillionaires are going to come from somebody who masters AI and all its derivatives, and applies it in ways we never thought of.” ~Mark Cuban
The above statement, from Mark Cuban, intuitively makes a lot of sense. Dissecting it further
"world's first trillionaires" - Lots of money / opportunities
"masters AI and its derivatives" - Develop expertise in not just in AI but also in related technologies / solutions
"in ways we never thought of" - Unanticipated innovation or black swan events
Aligning current trends with Mark Cuban's comments it can be noted that while Computer Vision and Chatbots are progressing the greatest value to society and businesses will be delivered via unanticipated innovation. For example:
Self-driving cars and other autonomous vehicles (e.g. drones)
Diagnostic medical imaging
GPS, navigation and logistics
How to analyze the impact of AI?
When trying to analyze / understand the impact of AI it helps think of it as a technology layer that runs on top of the Internet thus amplifying effects of the Internet. Use cases fall into three categories
Workforce Optimization: Conventional thinking was that AI will have the greatest impact in this area (especially eliminate mundane / repetitive tasks) as it mimics the human brain. We believe that in addition to automation, workforce augmentation (Human + AI > Human or AI) will have a significant impact. Furthermore, there will likely be AI skills supply mismatch.
Supply Chain Disruption: The Internet had a significant impact on the Supply Chain (particularly E-Commerce). AI will further optimize Supply Chain - Marketing, Sales, Manufacturing and Logistics.
Product Innovation: We believe this will be the area where AI will have the greatest impact. Self-driving cars, protein folding and diagnostic medic imaging and GPS, navigation and logistics are all examples of product innovation that are bound to have a huge impact on society.
It is important that many of these future innovations will not be solely attributed to advancements or applications of AI. Various permutations and combinations of AI in-conjunction with Internet, UI, Mobility, E-Commerce, AR/VR, etc will deliver disruptive value.
Recommendations
AI's impact on the world of business and society should not be underestimated. Individuals, teams and companies can benefit significantly by learning to apply AI and relevant derivatives to deliver 1) Workforce Optimization, 2) Supply Chain Disruption and 3) Product Innovation. They can pursue these efforts independently or partnership with others but those who wait will likely never catch-up.
References
BizML (Business Machine Learning Optimizer)
BizML is Semantic Brain's ML Framework that captures Domain Expertise to enable better Data Exploration, Feature Engineering and Feature Selection to deliver better Signal-to-Noise-Ratio. The framework was developed to deliver Supply Chain Disruption and Product Innovation (particularly in Financial Services) - https://www.semanticbrain.net/post/introducing-bizml-business-machine-learning-optimizer
Asperios B2B
Asperios B2B is Semantic Brain's B2B product platform that delivers 2 to 5 times more Clicks & Conversions per Ad dollar and Sales Optimization.