AI-powered ambient computing is just getting started
It’s hard to believe that not even 75 years have passed since ENIAC, that room-sized, 30-ton calculating machine, was the number-crunching hero of World War II. Since then, technology has evolved and converged into myriad applications — including the internet; internet of things (IoT); big data; mobile, virtual, and augmented reality; machine learning; and artificial intelligence.
These applications operate infinitely more quickly, ubiquitously, and unobtrusively than ever before. This world of ambient computing, or ambient intelligence, will continue to unleash waves of innovation that will fundamentally change how we live and work.
Ambient computing covers applications incorporating machine learning and other forms of artificial intelligence and is characterized by human-like cognitive and behavioral capabilities and contextual awareness. It creates a digital environment in which companies integrate technology seamlessly and invisibly into everything around us, maximizing usefulness while minimizing demands on our attention.
Cisco IoT expert Rowan Trollope sums up the hopes behind this technology when he says, “Ambient computing and AI will provide radically better experiences.”
Ambient computing already provides everyday services ranging from the voice-driven smart speaker in the kitchen to smart thermostats that blend into the background. Virtual digital agents, or chatbots, are also making giant strides by incorporating AI. Solution developer [24]7.ai refers to the “age of intent,” when a company’s bot can derive your intent by adding information already available within its databases to the current context of an inquiry. Properly designed, these bots can improve all customer-facing disciplines, including sales, customer service, and marketing.
Far more involved scenarios will soon be possible, with enabling technologies embedded into homes, grocery stores, offices, hospitals, and transportation services.
Here’s one such sequence: A heart monitor embedded in your shirt provides real-time data to a cardiologist, who can then send updated prescriptions to your pharmacist, who can, in turn, send an alert to your smartwatch while you are driving home to say that your medications are ready to pick up. Then your GPS can automatically update itself to route you to the pharmacy, where you arrive in your self-driving car and pay for the prescription using your smartphone.
All the devices and applications in this example are fully integrated, adjusting seamlessly as the user moves from one place to another. This native integration provides a radically better experience than the tangle of applications and actions that are necessary today.
While the term “ambient computing” has been around since the 1990s, the technology required to make it a reality is only now beginning to catch up. Gartner mentioned ambient computing in its report on strategic technology trends for 2016, claiming it would become a major differentiator for independent software vendors and enterprises alike by 2018.
That timing might be optimistic, but several leading vendors have started discussing the concept in recent strategy announcements. Certainly, consumers and tech enthusiasts are already describing home assistants such as Amazon Echo and Google Home as ambient computing products. This concept garnered initial attention last year through Walt Mossberg’s final column. While attention is growing around ambient computing, it has not yet reached the mainstream. Nevertheless, many companies are, or soon will be, vying for a piece of the action.
