7 Artificial Intelligence Trends to look for in 2018

Artificial intelligence is not another apocryphal concept given birth by the movies. As unreal as it might have earlier sounded it has shown a charged growth in the recent years. Earlier there were hardware limitations limiting the growth and the skepticism affecting the acceptance of AI. But then as it started to be recognized as an auxiliary technology and not a threat to the human employment it started penetrating every industry. 2017 had been a glorious year for AI with some big names in the technology sector actively showcasing their support towards this technology. So what does 2018 have in store for AI? We would have to wait and watch how things unfold. But before that here are the 7 AI trends that are likely to happen taking into account the current situation.

1. Deep learning

We talk about artificial intelligence and how it is revolutionizing technology. What lies at the core are the artificial neural networks (ANN). It is the efficient training of these ANNs that influence the precision of the predictions made by the AI systems. Deep learning models are characterized by additional layers in the ANN. Organizations look for scalability and deep learning would make this possible. The only problem with deep learning till date is the enigma surrounding it. The situation might get better this year.

2. Increased adoption of chatbots

Be it for customer service or for an IT helpdesk in an organization, any of the service based industries would find the incorporation of chatbots to be truly beneficial. These are known to improve the sales and help promote a more personalized interaction with the customers. Several more developments are bound to occur in the field of chatbots. The conversational UI would get better with the wider use or natural language processing to make the bots sound more human like. Contact centers might start adopting chatbots for reducing wait times for customers. More and more chat and messaging platforms would open up to the integration of chatbots for businesses.

3. Reforms in the hardware technology to augment AI technology:

Earlier one of the biggest hurdle in the integration of the intelligent systems was the lack of suitable hardware. But now some of the global leaders in chip manufacturing are focusing on making hardware suitable to tap the potential of AI. The recent iPhones that came with a new and upgraded A11 Bionic chip is the perfect example. The hardware of this chip has been designed especially to handle AI capabilities thanks to the neural engine it has. And when we talk about deep learning, the complications in the computation would require suitable hardware to handle this as well. There will be a shift in focus and while hardware manufacturers would continue to talk power and speed they would also consider neural network handling abilities to make future ready hardware which can handle sophisticated decision making processes.

4. Mobile AI would gather momentum

From the time where we were skeptical about developing PCs that could handle AI systems we have come a long way to a time where smartphones would be able to supplement this technology. 5G would not be the only revolutionary trend happening in mobile technology in the coming years. Neural engine would soon become an integral part of every smartphone processor. Mobile as well as web application created this year might integrate AI and there might be several new use cases coming up. Siri, Alexa, the list is long when we talk about the virtual assistants available on smartphones. These are already smart and soon more and more mobile apps would be able to provide a customized experience for each customer thanks to AI. This would open up more opportunities and expand the scope for mobile app development.

5. Voice input would start dominating

IoT has already become a reality. Smart home systems are already available in several parts of the world. The intelligent systems would be made better with machine learning helping them to learn customer preferences and provide relevant responses and be able to handle even more complicated commands. NLP would also improve voice inputs. So there would be an improvement not just in the responses but also the way the machines understand the human language, thus allowing simpler straightforward commands. More and more functions would soon be possible with voice commands. And this has also changed the way people search for things on the internet.

6. AI and the cybersecurity matters

When we talk about the impact of AI on cybersecurity there are several dimensions to consider. In the wrong hands AI would give all the power to hack into the most secure systems. Password predictions would be simpler as hackers would be able to use AI to make better predictions and narrow down the most probable ones. Data breeches would also become more common due to chatbots that are built on weaker less secure platforms. Such risks have resulted in the validation of the need for GDRP and other similar regulations to enforce stringent rules for data security. That being said AI would not just help the hackers but also those working to strengthen the cybersecurity. Much like passwords can be easily predicted than before, probable threats can also be predicted well ahead and suitable measures could also be taken.AI in cybersecurity would thus have a major role to play in hindering as well as strengthening cybersecurity. To understand which side dominates we would have to wait to get our answers.

7. AI and the changes in the job market:

AI and the job market have a deep running connection. In fact it is not just AI, any revolutionary technology would first experience a resistance before it is allowed to be adopted in a large scale. AI allows a great level of automation which comes in handy in several industries. This might surely have a huge impact on the job market scenario. There might be several jobs that might be taken up by machines but these would be low skill jobs where human efforts need not have to be wasted. This would, in the long run, create new job opportunities. But this is going to take a while. In 2018 we can surely expect to see some volatility in the AI in job market because of the changes that AI would be bringing in and because businesses big and small are now considering the possibilities that this new entrant in technology would offer for them.
Besides the above mentioned possibilities, workplace would also become more flexible with the right level of AI integration. And the increase in demand would cause the AI based startups to gain a significant position in the market. Medicine, Aviation, finance and several industries that were initially resisting the acceptance of AI would soon use the technology in different ways. 2018 is thus all set to be a significant year in the journey of artificial intelligence.