AI/ML Overview

What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial Intelligence is the field of developing computers and robots that are capable of behaving in ways that both mimic and go beyond human capabilities. Some examples of AI in our daily lives are smart assistant like Siri and Alexa, Spotify recommendations, and wait times for Ubers.

While an “intelligent” computer uses AI to think like a human, it still needs to develop its intelligence somehow. That’s where Machine Learning comes in.

What is Machine Learning (ML)

Machine learning a subcategory of AI that uses algorithms to automatically learn insights and recognize patterns from data. It then applies these learnings to make increasingly better decisions.

Machine Learning can generally be broken down into three main categories: Supervised Learning, Unsupervised Learning, and Reinforcement Learning.

Why is AI Important to Businesses

According to a survey by PWC, Fifty-two percent of companies accelerated their AI adoption plans because of the Covid crisis, and 86% of companies say that AI is becoming a “mainstream technology” at their company in 2021. With AI adoption predicted to continue rising in the 2020s it is important to understand the benefits AI can provide businesses. Some commonly cited benefits of AI are:

Process automation: automating tasks that are simple but time consuming, such as transferring data from emails and call centers into data systems
Business insights: analyzing data to detect patterns and act on them. This includes things like personalized customer recommendations, quickly identifying quality problems, and creating more accurate forecasting models.
Customer Engagement: this is most commonly seen as chatbots used for 24/7 customer support, or internal sites for employees (HR, IT, Employee Benefits).

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