Artificial Intelligence is set to offer a sea of opportunities for market players over the next three to five years, TBR analyst Jennifer Hamel says.
“Though the time frame for AI to transition from a generator of hype to a generator of revenue for IT vendors remains hazy, it is clear the market is filling rapidly with a broad variety of competitors that have a wide range of portfolio development and go-to-market strategies,” the analyst said.
According to TBR’s 2016 Business Intelligence Predictions, in the coming years, industries will increasingly rely on automated, intelligent applications to run most processes, supplemented with human intelligence and direction periodically.
Combined with analytics, AI can significantly accelerate enterprises’ ability to transform raw data into insights for use by both humans and machines.
Latest news related to AI industry underlines TBR analyst’s view. Most recently, Apple reportedly acquired Seattle-based artificial intelligence and machine learning start-up Turi for about $200 million. With this move, Apple aims to increase its focus on AI, while its rivals such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Amazon are also in the race.
Further, IBM Watson, which combines AI and analytical software, was in media for helping Indian doctors to cure breast cancer by offering several treatment options from 15 million pages of medical content.
IBM Watson grabbed significant attention from the market since its launch. Enterprises such as the North Face, SoftBank Robotics, UA Record, Whirlpool home appliances, Pathway Genomics have used the Watson capabilities.
In 2016, the Watson division of IBM was actively playing in the market with strategic plans. following the opening of its global head quarters in Germany in December, Watson expanded its presence in India in February this year, with adding two partners -InspireOne Technologies and TEXTIENT to begin developing cognitive computing solutions in India.
For vendors such as IBM, Google and Wolfram Research (Wolfram|Alpha), winning over developers will be critical to ensuring their platforms survive as the AI market matures.
Their success will depend on quickly establishing the business value of AI solutions through consulting-led coinnovation engagements and/or client success stories, catering to client needs in different stages of AI-enabled transformation, and maintaining relationships with industry to adapt solutions to emerging business challenges.
IoT and AI
The Internet of Things (IoT) and AI go hand in hand. With an expected increase in the use of IoT over the coming years, huge amounts of data will be created. According to TBR, intelligent machines will be required to extract insights from this heap of data and to respond accordingly.
AI can also enable humans to more quickly and easily consume, synthesize and act on increasingly vast bodies of knowledge, sparking vendor investment in curated data sets and industry- or processoriented application solutions targeting LOB buyers.
Headwinds
Talking about the factors that may counter AI growth, Hamel says, enterprises continue to view AI as an expensive technology in search of a solution.
AI remains at an early stage of development for practical business application, most enterprises do not yet understand it or trust it enough to buy for anything more than experimentation.
However, the analyst expects professional services vendors will shift from automating rote tasks to incorporating machine learning and AI into service delivery. This change will reduce employee training and compensation costs and improve delivery consistency.
