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“AI is the new electricity. Just as electricity transformed almost everything 100 years ago, today I have a hard time thinking of an industry that I don’t think AI will transform.” – Andrew Ng, AI Expert.

Today, AI is embedded into our lives. We access it on a daily basis. Mobile banking, social networking; the spam filters on our inboxes. Phones that respond to our voices.

We’ve all heard the hype, yet AI is one of the lesser understood technologies of our time. When it comes to business, many questions remain. How are companies using AI to transform their business? What exactly are the technologies being used to do it?

Microsoft and EY surveyed 277 companies, across 7 sectors and 15 countries across Europe to learn which AI technologies are already being used – and how.

What technologies and data solutions are within the scope of the study?

Developing a Culture of Adoption

Business leaders acknowledge the potential of speech recognition, computer vision, virtual agents, and other advanced AI technologies. However, their use is far from prevalent. The current focus is on narrower specific use technologies that support existing business. But, with these narrower efforts, companies are building their ability to utilise more advanced AI solutions in future. 

New Possibilities for Machine Learning

Machine Learning came out as the most commonly used of all the AI technologies among the companies surveyed.

Of the different types of Machine Learning, ‘supervised learning’ came out on top. This is where structured data is fed to software in order to find patterns.

Alongside Machine Learning, Smart Robotics was found to be the most useful of the technologies. This may be because they’re the most commonly used starting points. Whether they hold wider, longer term potential is unclear.

AI holds the potential to transform business in a radical way. But business leaders need to understand the full range of AI technologies and their applications. Only then will they grasp the opportunities and threats the technologies pose.

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