As a species, humanity has witnessed three previous industrial revolutions: first came steam/water power, followed by electricity, then computing. Now, we’re in the midst of a fourth industrial revolution, one driven by artificial Intelligence and big data.
I like to refer to this as the “Intelligence Revolution." But whatever we call it – the fourth industrial revolution, Industry 4.0 or the Intelligence Revolution – one thing is clear: this latest revolution is going to transform our world, just as the three previous industrial revolutions did.
What makes AI so impactful, and why now?
AI gives intelligent machines (be they computers, robots, drones, or whatever) the ability to “think” and act in a way that previously only humans could. This means they can interpret the world around them, digest and learn from information, make decisions based on what they’ve learned, and then take appropriate action – often without human intervention. It’s this ability to learn from and act upon data that is so critical to the Intelligence Revolution, especially when you consider the sheer volume of data that surrounds us today. AI needs data, and lots of it, in order to learn and make smart decisions. This gives us a clue as to why the Intelligence Revolution is happening now.
After all, AI isn’t a new concept. The idea of creating intelligent machines has been around for decades. So why is AI suddenly so transformative? The answer to that question is two-fold:
· We have more data than ever before. Almost everything we do (both in the online world and the offline world) creates data. Thanks to the increasing digitization of our world, we now have access to more data than ever before, which means AI has been able to grow much smarter, faster, and more accurate in a very short space of time. In other words, the more data intelligent machines have access to, the faster they can learn, and the more accurate they become at interpreting the information. As a very simple example, think of Spotify recommendations. The more music (or podcasts) you listen to via Spotify, the better able Spotify is to recommend other content that you might enjoy. Netflix and Amazon recommendations work on the same principle, of course.
· Impressive leaps in computing power make it possible to process and make sense of all that data. Thanks to advances like cloud computing and distributed computing, we now have the ability to store, process, and analyze data on an unprecedented scale. Without this, data would be worthless.
What the Intelligence Revolution means for your business
I guarantee your business is going to have to get smarter. In fact, every business is going to have to get smarter – from small startups to global corporations, from digital-native companies to more traditional businesses. Organizations of all shapes and sizes will be impacted by the Intelligence Revolution.
Take a seemingly traditional sector like farming.
