Artificial intelligence (AI) is the most transformative business force in the world today.
Hold on, you say—AI is not a new idea. As early as the 1940s, the great mathematician and code breaker Alan Turing proposed that digital computers would one day be capable of performing any kind of logical reasoning. In the 1950s, researchers at Dartmouth and MIT proposed AI as a formal field of study. Commercial interest in AI began in the 1960s and waxed and waned throughout the next several decades.
So why is AI such a big deal now? The answer is that AI, circa 2018, has reached a tipping point of effectiveness due to the rapid maturity of its supporting technologies. Step back and ask what AI needs to work at scale in any industry.
One, it needs massive quantities of data to analyze. Bingo—low-cost IoT sensors, 3.5 billion smartphones in the world, human genome sequencing and digital transactions everywhere are just a few of the technologies creating huge quantities of data. Two, it needs digital storage and computational powers that are unprecedentedly cheap and always available. That is what cloud services are providing today. And three, it needs a new class of learning algorithms that can adapt to change in real time, from autonomous transportation to predictive maintenance and personal healthcare, to real-time voice and facial recognition. The algorithms are here.
CEOs and boards are taking note, and they should. Only three or four years ago it was common to see, at the board level, discussion of IT issues limited to an hour or so within the audit committee. While audit committees still need to know about IT’s role in regulatory compliance and network security, the digital transformation of a company is existential and raises the stakes for all executives. Either companies (and executive careers) will successfully transform, or they will fade and die. The tip of the digital transformation spear is now AI.
To prepare your organizations for this new era, we’ve partnered with Intel to do a yearlong exploration into AI. Our series of AI publications will highlight new Forbes Insights research and provide actionable, informative content that will help you navigate this changing landscape. AI has unprecedented potential. Companies will thrive or wither depending on whether they realize this potential in their business—our goal is to help you thrive.
Learn more about how companies are leveraging AI today.
CREDITS: Akrain/iStock
About the Author
Rich Kalgaard is the publisher of Forbes magazine, where He writes a biweekly column called Innovation Rules. He's also a regular panelist on cable news' popular business show, Forbes on FOX (with an average viewership of 1.2 million households per show in 2012), and frequent guest analyst on CNBC's The Kudlow Report. His 2004 book, Life 2.0, was a Wall Street Journal business bestseller. He's also an entrepreneur, an active angel investor, and sits on three outside boards. For co-founding Silicon Valley's largest public affairs organization, the 6,500-member Churchill Club, He's a past Northern California winner of Ernst & Young's prestigious "Entrepreneur of the Year Award." He earned a B.A. from Stanford University. He lectures up to 50 to 60 times a year on the innovation economy.
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