With the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) and its significantly more public footprint, there are those who are hesitant to embrace this disruptive technology. What you may not know is that there are so many more than five ways you already use AI.
How Our Opinions on AI are Formed
The hesitation to relinquish this sort of decision-making may find its root in science fiction. Whether it’s Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey telling Dave, “I’m sorry…I can’t do that.” Or maybe it’s in writing where AI is associated with dystopian futures, as is the case in Brian Aldiss’s “Supertoys Last All Summer Long and Other Stories of Future Time” and his Supertoys series from the late 1960s. Take it a step further and you end up with the three laws of robotics from the writings of Isaac Asimov. AI has been around conceptually for at least 90 years. At this point in human development, we’re at the point where we’re already using AI—whether we notice it or not.
AI Already in Daily Use
While there are certainly far more than five, here are five key ways you already use AI in your daily life:
- Banking. Have you ever gotten a text alert on potentially fraudulent activity on your credit card or with your bank account? An AI algorithm likely has been monitoring your banking activity and has built a profile of your spending habits. When it detects an anomaly, it sends a message to you asking for your confirmation or input. It uses that to continue to know you and predict your financial moves.
- Do you have an iPhone? How did you unlock your screen so you could read this text? If you used FaceID, you used AI.
- Why does your favorite Greek yogurt always seem to be in stock at your grocery store? Most likely it’s because your favorite yogurt producer uses AI to monitor and understand customer demand down to your postal code. That’s right it can help predict customer demand for plain Greek yogurt. In October. In White Bear Lake, Minnesota. From there, it’s just a matter of getting it on the right trucks at the right time to the right stores. It does all of this using AI.
- Looking for a new sofa for the living room? Many furniture manufacturers have virtual apps that show how your space will look with that new davenport against the wall opposite your television. You guessed it: AI.
- That streaming music app you use makes recommendations for music you might like by learning who you are. It catalogs your listening types and music tastes. It then makes suggestions to help you get through that dog walk or leg day with the soundtrack of your life intact.
Society’s Decision
The question around AI is probably less about James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd’s “self-aware Skynet” and more about “do we even know how we’re already benefitting from it?”
It’s clear there are several marketing and consumer applications for this technology. In addition, however, AI is already delivering incredible results in medicine, transportation, and so many more areas. Understanding what it can provide and how society can benefit are serious considerations. Nevertheless, entertaining those concepts can lead to even more breakthroughs, problems solved, and challenges overcome. Ours is the decision whether or not to embrace this technology and reap the rewards.
Interested in learning how AI can help your business build a competitive advantage? Contact us today and let’s start the discussion.