Artificial intelligence (AI) has been around for nearly 70 years. It’s had many components, evolutions and names (like machine learning) and has even been immortalized in pop culture throughout the decades. Simply put, AI has been transforming every aspect of our lives for a long time.
During that time, the evolution of AI has seen periods marked by obstacles and others marked by exponential advancement. But as computers have evolved, so has the power and functionality of AI, even if it wasn’t always widely known.
Since the 1950s, AI solutions were built for very specific purposes and users. Recently, however, generative AI-powered tools like ChatGPT and others have put the technology in the hands of the public, as well as businesses that might have previously viewed these tools as ostentatious or exorbitant.
This democratization of AI has brought on a new era of business operations in and out of the technology industry. It’s no surprise that some indications show the AI market growing from $150 billion this year to more than $1.3 trillion by 2030.
Three Stages of Artificial Intelligence In Today’s Marketplace
AI includes a wide spectrum of technologies. Essentially, AI business solutions take data and find patterns or indicators that are repetitive and use that to get new information. AI has three stages businesses should be aware of:
- Machine Learning
- Artificial Intelligence (as we know it today)
- Generative AI
Historically, most of the time when we’re talking about AI, we’re really talking about machine learning (ML). ML is about identifying patterns and reacting with specific actions. From facial recognition on your cell phone to voice-to-text, we see this type of technology in our everyday lives.
AI is heading in the direction where it can identify patterns and create tasks the way humans would. This isn’t just about intake and output based on the data. True AI is getting the information, processing it, relating it to some other information and then making a decision that makes sense for that scenario.
Generative AI is the third stage and is playing a larger role in our lives today. This is where the AI tool gets a prompt or request, gathers information from various sources, identifies patterns, processes the data and creates a response or output.
This phase of AI has spurred the concept of democratizing AI, putting historically inaccessible and advanced pieces of technology in the hands of anyone with an Internet connection.
Democratizing Artificial Intelligence
Technology always starts with the companies that are the innovators and early adopters who often create solutions that are very specific to those companies’ needs and use cases. The largest hyperscalers and companies have been making investments in generative AI tools and more importantly, those organizations have been very nimble in order to implement these solutions and take them to market.
The democratization of AI is the shift that this technology is no longer only available for specialized use cases; AI is now a mainstream technology.
What we’re seeing today is that AI affects daily life. In business, it can help you write an email or create a presentation. In your personal life, it can help with the purchase of a new product.
The fact that this type of technology is in the palm of your hand changes the marketplace landscape, as well as the proliferation of these tools across our personal and professional lives.
Where Businesses Are Leaning In On Artificial Intelligence
We’re going to see a shift in the way companies are conducting business as they start to adopt AI-powered solutions throughout their operations. This adoption has come early for tasks or processes where it’s easy to recognize patterns, like finance, logistics, security threats, the stock market, or even weather forecasting. We may even see that companies start to develop new products, tools or services as a result of the patterns that are identified in their data.
This adoption trend will continue, and businesses will be able to cut a lot of costs on tasks and operations where they are currently spending a lot of resources. These companies will optimize some of the human areas they have right now and shift them to more of an automated solution that uses AI.
That also means they are going to be nimbler in their operations and business logistics. For instance, companies can have more of a 24/7 approach. You can have a very savvy worker, but the best worker still can’t work 24 hours a day, which we know many businesses require. With AI solutions, you can have this kind of potential.
Even though we’re seeing faster implementation of AI tools, the full adoption of these technologies is still going to take time.
Barriers To Adoption And Democratization of AI
The biggest barriers are going to be fears and skills related to understanding and utilizing AI-powered solutions. AI and new technologies can be intimidating, and businesses and executives must better understand them to be comfortable with adopting them as part of their operations.
A (Healthy) Fear Of Technology
While AI is the technology of “today,” we’ve heard very similar concerns and fears with other new technologies over the decades. Questions around workforce, employees being replaced, unpredictable outcomes, and more.
These are fair concerns as AI is not just a technology that can automate processes, but it is starting to make decisions, which has traditionally been the job of employees. AI tools can be very useful and “intelligent,” although it’s still tricky to get the right information the right way for your specific needs.
That means people are still the critical piece to making these solutions work for your company’s needs.
Investing In AI Skills
AI-powered tools are only as good as your team’s ability to implement and harness them.
We’ve seen large hyperscalers and businesses who have made significant AI investments for various uses, like security, to leverage the power of these tools. The reality for most organizations is that they don’t have the resources to invest in the skillsets needed for employees to truly take advantage of these solutions.
The good news is that there are partners out there that can help reduce the amount of resources needed for companies, especially SMBs, to leverage these tools for their businesses. We’re already seeing this happen with companies that have large language models in place, or they are developing frameworks that have multiple use cases and can be applicable for a variety of businesses and industries.
We’re still going to see significant maturing of AI and its adoption in the marketplace, but the important thing, however, is the more they are used the more these tools learn and become more intelligent and useful. That means we’re going to see an acceleration of that maturity, which leads to greater adoption of these tools in the marketplace.
Preparing Your Business To Harness The Power Of Artificial Intelligence
Businesses need to understand what sort of AI solutions will best fit their needs, as well as what solutions will best serve their customers. Vendors need to understand who will benefit from their solutions and package them in a way that can be as customized as possible for their target customer.
CEOs and executives should be looking at the intersection of their organizational mission with AI and asking themselves, “how can AI better support this mission and the tasks that help us achieve it?”
Regardless of where you sit, once you understand that, there are two ways to realize the benefit of AI.
- Create the AI solution yourself
- Find pre-packaged solutions
What we’re seeing right now are the packaged solutions that provide some level of ]customization. And as the AI-powered solutions mature, you’ll see even more customization.
Finding The Right AI Solution Support
AI has come a long way in seven decades, and the pace at which we’re seeing these tools evolve is staggering. For most businesses who can’t fully invest in these solutions, the biggest recommendation is to find the right partners.
The democratization of AI will continue to accelerate as these tools are more readily available and organizations like TD SYNNEX aggregate the solutions, making them available to businesses that might not otherwise be able to leverage this technology.
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