Why businesses are walking on the ‘edge’ of revolution

A new wave of transformative technology is prevalent in today’s business scenario. Bringing a surge of new opportunities and challenges, the ‘fourth industrial revolution’ is here and is rapidly changing the world around us.

Technological advances, such as smart devices, sensors, wireless communication and artificial intelligence have created extraordinary opportunities for innovation and technology-enabled business overhaul. While the increased focus on solutions like the internet of things and big data analytics are helping businesses anticipate customer needs and provide faster service – there are still risks stalling greater adoption of such technologies, primarily the lack of interoperability with existing IT systems and data security.

With the current AI market in India estimated at $230 Million, the hype around AI is slowly dissolving into business reality, setting the foundation of next-gen software solutions and applications. There’s even a very positive vibe in the India start-up community regarding AI. Today’s entrepreneurs realize how AI and machine learning can help businesses get an edge over the competition and delivering better services.

Where are we now?

A 2016 report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said 9% of jobs in the 21 countries that make up its membership could be automated. Despite widespread hysteria around AI leading to mass unemployment, the adoption of cognitive systems and AI will drive worldwide revenues of over $47 billion by 2020.

It is also essential to understand that importance of the ‘demand’ for automation. It can be safely assumed that limited demand for AI solutions will also limit human replacement; implying that the increased technical change will, in fact, create more jobs. What is required is for businesses and economies to be aware of the transition in job profiles as a result of AI and automation.

Considering all of the above, it is surprising that some businesses are still evaluating the potential benefits of AI in the enterprise. As businesses move forward, it will be imperative to cut through the hype and choose the right partners for deploying AI across industries. Essentially, it all boils down to how companies choose what types of work can be automated or augmented by Artificial Intelligence solutions.

For the near term, cognitive technologies hold a lot of promise in simplifying the complex business processes and the ways we interact with the world today.

What’s next?

The future of AI is beyond traditional computing. With IoT making its way most physical devices, and the government’s undertaking of an AI-led economy, there is a critical need to facilitate integrated smart solutions within different sectors and functions.

The transformation has already started with companies looking at overall customer experience – across industries. AI can help provide great advances in healthcare with wellness applications, drug deliver, therapy adherence and virtual diagnoses. Similarly, AI-powered automotive solutions can help eradicate global mobility challenges, reduce road fatalities, emissions and time wasted in transit.

Currently, advanced use cases of deep learning techniques for video analytics have helped clients operating in sectors such as energy, maritime, real estate and mining get real-time alerts for detecting intrusions, identifying abandoned objects, evaluating traffic flow density and enabling facial and character recognition so as to improve overall safety and security levels at different locations

Sanjay Gupta, Vice President and India Country Manager, NXP

While all these trends suggest that fighting technological advances is likely a losing battle. It is also critical to understand that AI lays the foundation for many related technologies - including natural language processing (improving  interactions between computers and human or “natural” languages); machine learning (computer programs that can “learn” when exposed to new data) and expert systems (software programmed to provide advice) – that help machines analyze and actions in ways similar to the humans.

On the enterprise front, adoption for AI technologies is slowly picking up. According to a recent study, global revenues from AI for enterprise applications are expected to grow to $31.2B by 2025 attaining a 52.59% CAGR!

While the possibilities are endless in the India market; a certain number of activities will continue to be unpredictable and would require the application of human judgment — whether research scientists, architects or financial advisors.

What will fuel AI in the future?

With millions of devices continuously producing and exchanging data, managing complex machine-to-machine communications is necessary. To monitor and control critical smart-world infrastructure, Edge Computing has emerged as a new paradigm that’s streamlining all AI processes by managing network latency, localized computing and energy consumption.

Companies like NXP have already applied their research in Edge Computing, AI, machine learning, and natural language processing into their products. The company’s edge computing systems enable excellent human-machine interfaces and system controls – along with establishing better links between siloed subsystems for seamless automation.

While the Cloud remains the best place to manage Machine Learning (ML) algorithms, Edge Computing is proving to be the best platform to execute ML components and AI deployments across new systems. With the convergence of AI, data analytics and IoT; Edge computing, in the next couple of years will drive data security and privacy, process machine to machine communication and enable great magnitude of AI applications.

All businesses need to do is continuously engage in the ongoing dialogue around these technologies and be forerunners in early adoption!

By Sanjay Gupta, Vice President and India Country Manager, NXP