Depending on your perspective, artificial intelligence (AI) is either incredibly cool or terrifying. AI is a term referring to information systems that are inspired by biological systems. They cover multiple technologies including machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, natural language processing (NLP), machine reasoning and strong AI. AI is often used to make human lives easier by having a transformative effect on consumer, enterprise and government markets around the world.
On the other hand, some people are afraid of AI taking over and becoming too big of a presence—can you blame them? HAL 9000 wasn’t exactly the friendliest character. While AI might not be gearing up to launch us into the dystopian society some people fear, a new report from Tractica does suggest that AI has use cases and applications in almost every industry, and promises to significantly change existing business models in the coming years.
The span in which AI can be used is impressive. Tractica has identified 191 real-world use cases for AI. Organized into 27 different industry sectors, these use cases correspond with six major technology categories, as well as multiple combinations of technologies. The various sectors in which it can be found make it no surprise that Tractica forecasts the annual worldwide AI revenue will grow from $643.7 million in 2016 to $36.8 billion by 2025.
“Some artificial intelligence use cases – such as image recognition, algorithmic securities trading, and healthcare patient data management – have huge scale potential, while others are niche applications,” says research director Aditya Kaul. “Likewise, a few key industry sectors including consumer products, business services, advertising, finance & investment, media & entertainment, and defense applications will drive significant revenue for AI software implementations in addition to AI-driven hardware and service sales, but during the coming decade the technologies will have an effect on almost every conceivable industry sector.”
No matter whether you’re pro or against AI, the fact remains the same that it is becoming a bigger part of our daily lives—just look at Siri’s popularity. According to Tractica, technologies are advancing at such a speed that AI could soon be a major player in your industry.