EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES | BDO LLP
02
01 EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES | BDO LLP
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
People often use the phrase AI in the context of any tech solution that is able to make inferences based on previous inputs, generating new actions and outputs that go beyond its initial programming brief. Some of the other technologies under discussion here might be very approximately referred to as ‘AI’ too. Facial recognition, deep learning, machine learning and cloud computing may all come under the AI banner too. AI is familiar to everyone from domestic applications such as Apple’s Siri, the popular assistant that can be used to retrieve information, send messages, make calls and all the rest. Siri uses machine-learning technology to develop its understanding of natural-language, and to learn to anticipate its users’ requirements.
The sectors that we feature later in this eBook are largely powered by a handful of core technologies, often combining in different ways. Together these technologies have transformed or disrupted markets and industries, following a trajectory of innovation that has been long expected but which in recent months has accelerated at an unprecedented rate. Ways of working and delivering services, often involving distance or automation, that were once exclusively the province of early adopters have suddenly become mainstream, and businesses have increasingly turned to tech to help them keep abreast of a rapidly changing world and accelerate the digital transformation of their operations. Here we look at some of those key technologies, and assess the investment potential for tech in the post- COVID-19 period.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a very broad and rather fuzzy term (see AI: What’s in a name? ) that broadly refers to the ability of a computer program or a machine to think and learn. Smart computers use AI to help them work on their own without needing to be encoded with commands. In a definition developed by Deloitte and the World Economic Forum , artificial intelligence is ‘a suite of technologies, enabled by adaptive predictive power and exhibiting some degree of autonomous learning, that dramatically advance our ability to recognise patterns; anticipate future events; create good rules; make good decisions; and communicate with other people’.
THE GLOBAL AI MARKET IS EXPECTED TO GROW TO $202.6 BILLION BY 2026, UP FROM $20.7 BILLION IN 2018 , ACCORDING TO FORTUNE BUSINESS INSIGHTS.
Made with FlippingBook HTML5