Cylons Don’t Have a Plan: 5 Myths About AI

Cylons Don’t Have a Plan: 5 Myths About AI

Umbrella IT

The days when the Artificial Intelligence (AI) was only sci-fi have gone long ago. The inevitable domination of self-aware machines which are intellectually superior to humans and able to think in a rational manner - that’s what our future will hold according to the latest predictions not by writers, but by scientists.   

The prospects seem to be totally bleak when Shane Legg forecasts that technologies could doom the mankind, Stephen Hawking calls AI potentially the worst thing that has ever happened to the humanity, and Elon Musk insists that AI could trigger the World War III. 

Looks like this is how it ends.

Let’s not rush things. 9 years of development experience and over 200 successfully launched projects have convinced us that AI is the technologies without which a lucrative modern business can’t be built.

Is AI actually so black as it is painted by scientific doomsayers, why is making a hasty decision against AI integration in the business wrong, and what myths and fears do surround it - this hard-hitting article will answer all these questions.

What All the Fuss is About

From computer games to self-driving cars, AI has been evolving rapidly. However, at this stage of development, AI that we actually have right now is merely a narrow, or weak AI, a learning system that is capable of solving complicated and highly specialized tasks (for example, facial recognition by Facebook or autonomous driving by Nvidia). Many scientists’ long-term objective is developing narrow AI into strong, or general AI. If narrow AI outperforms a human in certain task execution, strong AI is expected to be superior to people in the cognitive performance at large. 

It is the strong AI prospects that have become a rallying point for the apocalyptic sentiment in the scientific community. But fortunately, it will take a while for AI to have free will and ability to make decisions, as SkyNet did it.

“Right now, the myths surrounding artificial intelligence are rampant,” says Alexander Linden, research vice president at Gartner. The majority of these myths don’t only distort facts and adversely affect the social perception of technologies, but also stop the entrepreneurs from using the AI solutions to optimize and improve business efficiency.

There is still a common misconception that AI is a potential threat to the humanity, although current vector of development and training philosophy applied to the learning systems show that there is no real threat at all. So let’s leave a potential robopocalypse to sci-fi writers and futurologists, address the pressing issues and bust the most popular myths about AI implementation in Business.  

Myth #1: AI is Merely a Marketing Ploy

Over the last years, AI has dominated the headlines so often that it started to be perceived as a general value-free marketing term that is not relevant to the business at all.

That is fundamentally wrong. From the point of view of any company, AI is a broad term including machine learning, deep learning, neural networks, computer vision and other approaches и technologies dedicated to optimize the enterprise efficiency and stimulate the business to develop in line with the modern information trends.

The obvious AI benefit is the capability to process a large quantity of data at high speed that makes it especially relevant to various fields from the medical industry to entertainment.     

Wherever it may become necessary to improve security, speed or efficiency - AI would be an ultimate solution.

Myth #2: Modern AI Has No Practical Value

AI is undoubtedly an enabling technology that will probably re-imagine the way of how business should be done. However, there is not much real value at this stage of the AI development, so the game isn't worth the candle.

The experience of players shows otherwise: the demand for the AI experts has grown by 4.5 times for last 5 years, and the investment volume in the AI projects has increased by 6 times.

That’s hardly a surprise: as we speak AI handles the paperwork in government facilities, automates order placement and processes client requests in online shops, optimizes logistics in shipping companies, helps to arrange a visit to a doctor, and all of these things are just a small part of what AI is capable of.

The sooner you’ll go in for using AI algorithms to optimize your business processes, the faster you’ll get the result.

Myth #3: AI Is Only for Tech Giants

The innovativeness and development complexity in the AI field created a stereotype that it takes advanced tech companies to tame AI.

As a general rule, experienced experts in advanced companies are involved in AI development, and, yes, Google, Amazon, IBM, and Microsoft are in the first lines. But in practice, AI is easily adopted and work efficiently in almost any industries at any scales: intellectual systems are a strong competitive advantage and an optimal solution for sales, logistics, production and business analytics.

The only requirement is to apply technology for right reasons from the point of view of economy and company development strategy.

Myth #4: AI Hinders the Customer Service

At this stage of development, AI is not capable of compensating for all the subtleties and nuances of real interpersonal interaction at a proper level that is a critical stop-factor in customer service.

The obvious and simple solution for customer service is the chatbots which were created to provide relevant information, build brand loyalty, process the incoming requests 24 hours per day, and, quickly redirect users to human agents if it’s needed.   

Worried about losing all your clients because of chatbots? There you are wrong. According to Hubspot, the majority of customers have a positive attitude towards the chatbots processing their orders, and more than half of customers have no idea that they are dealing with AI technologies.

More information on chatbots benefits you can find in our article: Dreaming of Electric Sheep: How Chatbots Will Change The Future Of Business.

Myth #5: Every Company Needs a CAIO

Have you set to integrate AI in your business? Excellent! But first of all, you must formulate an AI strategy and an experienced CAIO.

Sounds familiar? An advice that keeps up with the relevant trends and is out of touch with reality. There is a possibility that AI will affect the senior management structure, although speaking of such changes right now seems premature.

If you are not going to invest millions in smart systems and planning to focus on AI technologies, trust us - you don’t need a CAIO. You need two teams: the one that understands what challenges exactly your business is facing and the other one that knows how to handle them technically.

If you are still in any doubt, we have prepared a bonus for you - the 6th myth about AI.

Myth #6: AI Will Replace a Human at the Workplace

The history repeats itself, and we are on the verge of the new industrial revolution. Whatever your job is, you’ll be replaced by a smart super robot.

Let’s be serious: we can’t deny the influence of AI on the global economy. While AI is rapidly evolving, increasing efficiency in the industry and driving up the growth rate of GDP, many jobs are falling into the uncertainty.

Nevertheless, the prospect of an imminent total unemployment caused by AI is a big exaggeration.

The sector of employment is restructured by the computers that take upon themselves a part of intellectual routines. But as the figures show, the total number of jobs stays unchanged: innovative careers emerge through the elimination of the obsolete ones. The new prospects of employment for people will be opened under the conditions of the automated economy.

“Don’t fight AI - you will lose every time. Instead, embrace it and become part of this revolution”.

Myths vs. Reality

Mythologization of the disruptive technologies is a subtle process during which a fact-based concept or item overgrowths with connotations sometimes having nothing to do with the reality

Paradoxically, that’s not always a bad thing: within limits, it boosts the development and attracting of attention and investments.

However, the myths and hype around AI should be open to interpretation. It’s highly important for tech leaders who want to integrate AI in their business to become a center of expertise and analyze precisely the currents advantages and negative attributes of AI.

Fact-orientation and the goal achievement are the guarantees of success in the quest for the perfect solutions. To make your journey easier, Umbrella IT has summed up the things that AI is really capable of.

The AI integration in business allows to:

  • complete routine tasks quickly and efficiently; 
  • eliminate a human factor;
  • monitor and analyze large amounts of information;
  • speed up and enhance the customer service;
  • improve targeting;
  • get insights in real time;
  • ensure maximum efficiency of business processes;
  • optimize company BI.

Today AI technologies not only have a high potential for various business fields but also adds real value.

Choose with the professional developers an AI technology that will be a perfect match for your specific business strategy.  

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