The huge potential of AI While Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have been on everybody's lips and media forefront for some time now, many are still not clear on how to best use Artificial Intelligence to generate business benefits and what it takes to implement it. Artificial Intelligence (AI, or Cognitive Intelligence) constitutes a group of technologies which fulfil two main goals: provide value-added insights from complex and unexploited data (recognition of patterns, clusters, anomalies, etc.) and allow better and quicker decision-making, thus closing the gap between information and action; and automate processes, workflows and tasks throughout the value chain, replacing human beings with computers and robots (e.g., product development, predictive maintenance, customer service, offer personalization, etc.). |
In the heart of Digital Transformation Artificial Intelligence must be considered as an integral part of the broader Digital Transformation, which organizations have been going through over the last years, leveraging digital technologies to transform products and services, business models and organizational set-ups. Digitization comes first, where a company takes things that were analogic ("not in the computer") and digitize it. The digitization creates digital data. After that comes some data science and AI, where you start to get more insights. It's only after you have digital data that AI is very efficient in "eating" that data to create value. AI can be virtually applied across all industries and functions (from Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management to Product Development, Marketing & Sales, Risk, Human Resources, etc.) and has the potential to radically change organizations and modify the way we work. |