AI Doesn’t Actually Exist Yet
During the past few years, all kinds of businesses have begun using what they call “artificial intelligence.” One international survey said 37 percent of organizations have, as a press release put it, “implemented AI in some form.” A different survey, looking at U.S. businesses, put the figure at 61 percent. A third, focused on the U.S. and the U.K., said, in the words of another press release, a whopping “77% have implemented some AI-related technologies in the workplace.”
The numbers don’t differ based on geography alone. They highlight a problem facing any discussion about AI: Few people agree on what it is.
Working in this space, we believe all such discussions are premature. In fact, artificial intelligence for business doesn’t really exist yet. To paraphrase Mark Twain (or rather a common misquote of what Twain actually said), reports of AI’s birth have been greatly exaggerated.
We’re not alone in thinking this. Luc Julia, Samsung’s vice president of innovation and co-inventor of Siri, has said something similar. Today’s tools for businesses involve mathematics, statistics, machine learning, deep learning and big data—with better machines than in the past. But what is so often referred to as AI doesn’t actually involve an artificial form of intelligence, Julia argues.Understanding this is crucial for businesses that want to take full advantage of the opportunities new technologies have to offer and build defenses against future competition.
Today’s tools can be powerful. But AI is best thought of as a next-generation set of technologies that businesses have not yet begun to use. Someday they will—and that will cause a whole new era of disruption. If businesses think they’re already using these technologies, they may not be prepared for the competitors who better understand the differences, put them to use and come up with better, more powerful ways to serve customers.
So if it isn’t AI, what technologies are businesses using today?
For many, it’s automation. Organizations are using processes that have existed for decades but have been carried out by people in longhand (such as entering information into books) or in spreadsheets. Now these same processes are being translated into code for machines to do. The machines are like player pianos, mindlessly executing actions they don’t understand.
Many traditional companies aren’t even doing this.
