It’s looking like 2018 will be remembered as the year when AI (artificial intelligence) – or machine learning as I’d rather put it – lost its innocence. “The tiger got out of the cage.” as EU justice commissioner Vera Jourova famously put it when asked about the data scandal involving Cambridge Analytica and Facebook. A lesson learned.
Machine learning has been around since the 1950s and as computer capacity becomes ever-cheaper and easier to consume, the sophistication and speed of Big Data applications never ceases to amaze.
“The tiger got out of the cage.”
As a bit of a Luddite, I still use a keyboard and listen to a push-button radio, rather than giving verbal instructions to Cortana to take a note or to Siri to play a song. But as machine learning becomes more pervasive, eventually, voice recognition will be the only way to control such devices (because they won’t make them in the old way anymore).
To use machine learning to accelerate digital transformation, where might one start? Any task currently performed by people that is repetitive, highly-constrained and follows a structured route is worth investigating.
In much the same way that interactive voice response systems replaced human operators to welcome callers and offer them alternative options on how their calls proceeded, voice recognition, coupled with a set of rules and the facility to build use cases, will be used increasingly to screen even more of the initial contact between an organisation and its clients. Why outsource or off-shore when the same customer experience is available using software?
Any task currently performed by people that is repetitive, highly-constrained and follows a structured route is worth investigating.
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Storing data in a machine-readable form is another consideration. Within our own process improvement program, we spotted recently that we have been collecting the same information from some of our clients at least twice.
Avoiding such duplication and ensuring that data can be accessed by multiple systems improves efficiency, including reducing the frustration felt by those tasked with what seems like engaging in a pointless exercise. Maintaining data securely, and carefully managing access are of course essential aspects of any such improvement.
Why outsource or off-shore when the same customer experience is available using software?
Machine learning is one of the fastest-growing parts of our economy and, building on the legacy of Alan Turing, who pioneered AI in the 20th Century, the UK is a world leader, with an AI start-up created every day.
Where does Intercity come into it? With our Touch Cloud computing platform, we can help your organisation by providing a secure, UK-only environment for developing your machine learning applications and putting them into production, supported by our ISO27001-certified assurance team.
