Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and robotic process automation are becoming increasingly popular in today’s workforce. It’s important to understand what they are, how they work and how they can influence the future of your organization. A recent presentation covered important topics within the world of Artificial Intelligence and worked to aid in understanding AI and guide organizations toward the potential of implementing it in the future.

General AI vs. Narrow AI

General AI is what we see in movies. It’s the scary machines with human senses and reasoning that can perform just as well or better than humans can. AI like the Terminator or C-3PO are examples of general AI.

On the other hand, we have narrow AI. Narrow AI is application-specific and uses data and Machine Learning to perform specific tasks. It is becoming increasingly popular within the workforce. Technology like chatbots are a good example of narrow AI.

How Machine Learning Works

The first step is to set up prelabeled training data to get the machine started. It’s important to identify dependencies, patterns and relationships between all of the training data. From here, a model will be created. The next step is to build a domain-specific, narrow AI application. That application will take in operational data, like someone asking it a question, and provide an output based on the training data it was given. If something goes wrong, feedback gets sent back to the training portion and a new model is created. This makes the application “learn” new information and become smarter over time.

Preparing for the World of AI

Life before Machine Learning was filled with manually programmed intelligence and pre-defined business rules and relationships. It was difficult to adapt to new scenarios. That’s all changing with the rise of Artificial Intelligence. Over the next two years, 42 percent of organizations plan to implement virtual assistants, 54 percent agree that robotics will eliminate a lot of manual tasks, and 41 percent plan to implement AI solutions. How can your organization implement AI?

Advice Moving Forward

The presentation ended with four pieces of advice to consider when moving forward with the idea of implementing Artificial Intelligence in your organization.

1. Understand your work processes.
2. Identify areas for potential automation.
3. Investigate new technologies.
4. Leverage domain experience.
5. Collaborate within your organization.

To learn more about Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and how they can affect the future of your organization, check out the full presentation here.

Additional Resources

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