Gartner claims people are warming to AI

The power of artificial intelligence is unquestionable, but what remains unknown is how long it will take for the technologies to be considered mainstream. Are people afraid of the power of AI?

With every technological breakthrough it takes a considerable amount of time for mainstream adoption. There are of course early adopters who will reap the benefits of AI, but bell curves exist for a reason; the vast majority will be slow to react, scared of the unknown, resistant to any form of change or dismissive of the benefits. Despite this pretty much being an inevitability, Gartner is confident adoption is going pretty well.

“Four years ago, AI implementation was rare, only 10% of survey respondents reported that their enterprises had deployed AI or would do so shortly,” said Chris Howard of Gartner. “For 2019, that number has leapt to 37% – a 270% increase in four years. “If you are a CIO and your organization doesn’t use AI, chances are high that your competitors do, and this should be a concern.

“We still remain far from general AI that can wholly take over complex tasks, but we have now entered the realm of AI-augmented work and decision science – what we call ‘augmented intelligence’.”

This is where some of the biggest benefits can be realised according to Gartner. With a continued shortage of IT skills (and also in some niche/highly qualified professions) throughout the world, AI can be introduced to ensure the chasm of ability does not negatively impact revenues. How this idea has been implemented across the ecosystem does seem to vary quite considerably.

The research indicates 52% of telcos have deployed chatbots to assist with customer service operations, while 38% of healthcare providers rely on computer-assisted diagnostics. Fraud detection and IT security are other areas which have seen AI implementation, while the breadth of services will only increase across 2019. With the smart home, and smart speakers in particular, becoming increasingly normalized in the eyes of the consumer, this looks like a blossoming space.

Interestingly enough, today also marks the day the UK Office of National Statistics unveiled employment numbers for the year. The number of people now employed in the UK has reached an all-time high of 32.54 million, while the number of job vacancies rose by 10,000 to a record 853,000. Although the early adopters, those with extraordinary technology ambitions, will focus on the added value benefits of AI there will of course be those who use such a breakthrough to reduce headcount.

This is the reality of AI which we will have to meet head on. Jobs will be replaced by automation and software, people’s livelihoods will be made redundant, unless retraining is offered. But, for retraining to be a realistic ambition first there has to be an acceptance of the negative consequences of AI.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution will be incredibly painful for some, but industry and politicians don’t seem to want to admit this, instead just focusing on the benefits. Every Industrial Revolution has been painful for those who have not adapted for the future, but somehow the rhetoric seems to be this one will be different. Putting PR spin on the issue will not help in the long-run, we need to be realistic.