Is Your Firm Taking AI Seriously?

Computers cannot think, though increasingly, they can do things only humans were able to do. It is now possible to automate a number of tasks that require human perceptual skills. It’s time businesses pay attention to new age artificial intelligence.

A useful definition of artificial intelligence (AI) is the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence. This is a significant change from the earlier definition of AI as computer systems that could think the same way as humans did.

Press coverage of the topic has been breathless, fuelled by the significant investments and amid concerns that computers may eliminate jobs by being smarter than humans. Amidst all the hype, there is significant commercial activity underway in the area of AI that is affecting or will likely soon affect organisations in every sector. Business leaders should understand what AI really is and where it is heading.

For us, a useful definition of AI is the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence. Examples include tasks such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision making under uncertainty, learning, and translation between languages.

Defining AI in terms of the tasks humans do, rather than how humans think, allows us to discuss its practical applications today, well before science arrives at a definitive understanding of the neurological mechanisms of intelligence. We distinguish between the field of AI and the subset of technologies that emanate from the field. The individual technologies, by contrast, are getting better at performing specific tasks that only humans used to be able to do. We call these “cognitive technologies”.

Components of cognitive technologies 

Cognitive computing solutions offer various capabilities compatible to the human brain, which enable the above technologies to perform tasks as a human brain will do. The individual technologies are getting better at performing specific tasks that only humans could do earlier.