Covid-19 Boosts AI Adoption

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has transformed businesses during the coronavirus pandemic and has helped them meet challenges, scale their business and evolve their capabilities. New market research commissioned by IBM has shown that almost a third of IT businesses are now using AI, while other companies have accelerated the rollout of AI as a result of the pandemic. AI and analytics are helping increase productivity, deliver new services and provide solutions to supply chain issues.

The potential and opportunities created by the use of data analytics and artificial intelligence has been highlighted during the Covid-19 pandemic, with life sciences and healthcare business leaders expressing their confidence in AI’s ability to assist in monitoring the spread of the virus, and helping with vaccine development and distribution.

How AI is changing businesses

According to IBM’s “Global AI Adoption Index 2021,” AI adoption has been accelerated due to the global pandemic and changing business needs. AI has changed the way businesses communicate via virtual assistants and has facilitated the automation of workflows and better management of network security. With many businesses looking to innovate and transform digitally, it has been noted that, investments in AI have focused on three capabilities, mainly the automation of IT and processes, trust in AI results and making the language of business palatable. During the pandemic and the new changes in the working environment, enterprises had to respond to new arrangements and to put in good use analytics and AI. CEOs are more interested in utilising data to understand their customers, improve their supply chains and distribution networks to optimize their businesses and activate new revenue channels.

AI is improving jobs and eliminating skills shortages

AI has been tremendously helpful in eliminating skills shortages. Those industries that have been hit the hardest by Covid-19 such as travel, hospitality, and entertainment, needed resources to meet demand. There has also been shown that AI and analytics can help offset shortages of AI development skills. AI, algorithm, and automation jobs have also seen a considerable increase recently. AI is critical to creating solutions to ever-changing skills needs and training and can help fill skills shortages or help employees do their jobs better and faster. AI and analytics are boosting productivity. The development of machine learning algorithms, cheaper data storage and computing power has allowed firms and smaller companies to access innovations in vision and speech, prediction and diagnosis.

Biden administration and more AI regulation

A KPMG study titled “Thriving in an AI World,” also found that business leaders were optimistic about the use of AI to solve major industry problems and underlined the benefits of Joe Biden’s new administration to advance the adoption of AI in different enterprises from industrial manufacturing to tech, retail, financial services, life sciences, government, and healthcare. Businesses have also expressed the need for more regulation, as the technology advances to avoid AI becoming the “Wild Wild West.”

Already, we have seen industries embrace off-the-shelf AI solutions and online artificial intelligence as a service software (AIaaS) which is forecast to reach over $100 billion by 2025. With more businesses investing in AI and more business leaders and innovators seeking to launch new ventures, the future will be shaped and re-configured by next-generation technologies to boost innovation and generate new business models.

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