Innovation and the power of AI

The human species can’t help innovating. We’ve come up with some remarkable innovations over the years… The wheel. The internet. Angry Birds.

The urge to find better, faster, easier ways of doing things seems as natural as evolution itself. And as soon as we do, the old way of doing things quickly becomes obsolete. When was the last time you sent a fax?

Innovations are helping doctors to develop vaccines to viruses, governments to predict citizen needs, and companies to recommend relevant products. Organizations that don’t innovate, or innovate slower than their competitors, risk becoming irrelevant.

AI puts boosters on innovation

Now the race is on to use AI to accelerate innovation. Compared to humans, AI is far faster at spotting patterns, processing vast amounts of data (including unstructured data), and making sensible recommendations.

Combined with machine learning, it can improve the accuracy of its observations, deductions and recommendations, getting better every time. Organizations that want to be leading innovators must use AI to power their innovation.

I’m looking forward to hearing at South Tech Week 2020 how AI is powering innovation in settings as diverse as social media, fintech, medicine, tourism, cyber security – even protecting endangered species.

Latest advances and use cases

The agenda looks interesting, covering the latest advances in reinforced learning, deep learning and quantum computing.

The advances in AI-powered language recognition are particularly exciting. My own company, Unit4, was an early innovator in this field, launching the world’s first natural language digital assistant embedded in enterprise software, Wanda, in 2017.

Since then, we’ve been at the forefront of using AI to drive the automation of business processes in enterprise software, as well as innovating within the software itself to make it simpler to configure and use.

Today, AI-driven bots can help accountants spot potential errors in their financial forecasts, or HR teams to measure employee engagement and drive productivity. Practical ways AI is already helping improve working life in the business world.

With great power comes…

AI-boosted innovation has enormous potential to make the world a better place. Whether in business, science, public services or entertainment, it will permeate our lives before we know it.

This is why we all have to proceed responsibly, making sure there are no unconscious biases in our algorithms and that the data we collect and produce is used ethically. Then we can go full-steam-ahead and make great innovations using the power of AI.

Who knows, by next year, I may be able to get a bot to write this blog for me.