Over the past 18 months, we’ve witnessed a dramatic rise in the platforms, tools, and applications based on artificial intelligence. This technology has not only impacted software and the Internet industries but also other verticals such as healthcare, legal, manufacturing, automobile and agriculture.
Our Sales Director Derek Gibb shares his insights into one of the most exciting tech trends of 2019.
“Artificial Intelligence is far from a new concept, but it is certainly finding itself increasingly in the spotlight. It is a vast, diverse area that can have monumental impacts on our health, how we work, or even how we get to work in the first place.
It might seem that it’s all of the big names in tech that are really pushing the envelope in this space – certainly the offerings from Microsoft, Amazon and Google might be the most obvious smart, AI enabled products that we interact with on a regular basis. Voice AI is built in to our home speakers, our cars, our mobile phones and smart watches – even our fridges (if you don’t mind spending £8k to keep your milk chilled!). It’s also highly prevalent in areas that are less “in your face” obvious: Automotive safety is an area where AI has become a key focus – recent legislation in the USA dictates that a certain level of safe AI is mandatory on all new vehicles being built; advanced safety warnings, automated breaking and steering, crash avoidance – all powered by artificial intelligence.
Even more below the radar is the use of AI in business, as a way to improve operational efficiencies and to free skilled people from repetitive tasks through automation. It might not sound sexy, but it is estimated that the global market for process automation software will reach £4billion by 2022.
AI and the use of data can also have transformational impacts on companies – companies who accumulate masses of data and realise that if used intelligently this data is in fact more valuable than what their original business concept was. Imagine an online clothing retailer being able to use predictive analysis to accurately plot trends, define which items of clothing will sell and which wont and then planning manufacture accordingly; this increases profitability, reduces waste, shrinks their carbon footprint, saves water in the often impoverished places where these items of clothing are often made and makes a potentially global impact all through the smart use of data and application of artificial intelligence.”
“These are just a handful of examples, and there are many others that could be used from some of the quite amazing companies that Net Talent are lucky to work with. Are the robots coming to take our jobs? I certainly don’t see it that way – the companies creating this amazing technology are creating a huge amount of jobs throughout the UK, from data analysts and data scientists, researchers and software engineers – highly skilled people will always be in demand and we are fortunate to be able to help some of the brightest minds in the country find an opportunity to utilise their skills in new and interesting ways that could impact all of our lives.”
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