During this unprecedented year one thing has become clear, that organisations need to find a way to quickly and safely apply AI to drive growth in both the short and long term. Here are 5 of our AI predictions for 2021:
1. Augmented AI applications to workforces
We’ve entered a new era in automation as we see companies embracing smart automation and autonomous systems that can make and execute decisions with little human intervention. In 2021 companies will continue adopting AI to help with workplace disruption for both location-based, physical, or human-touch workers and knowledge workers working from home. This has become more crucial than ever before for business continuity in unprecedented times. We’ll also see visual inspection tasks being automated for increased effectiveness even during lockdowns.
2. Abundance of data
AI will start to process richer data types such as point clouds, laser, Lidar and large sensor networks. This will take us towards a more “multimedia” AI landscape where AI can look at visual data, sensor data, and text messages simultaneously; learning correlations between them in order to respond in the best way to complex events in the world.
3. The rise of intelligent automation
Automation technologies are developing at a breathtaking pace, and there’s a broader understanding by business leaders as to the impact that can have. As more people work remotely, intelligent automation expands the possibilities to truly reimagine how businesses operate. In 2021 we’ll see a rise in the use of more applied terminology such as this one, rather than a more general fascination with the wonders of AI.
4. Explainable AI is here to stay
With government policies tightening in on AI and the rise of ethical AI, we see a future with more regulations regarding predictions and even adjusting them to avoid bias. Moreover, to overcome hurdles in science, we will need to overcome the black box problem. We’ll see a move towards a shared understanding of explainable AI and its implications with more companies having to account for the decisions of their AI applications. However most progress in the near term will be devised for the developers of AI, not end-users.
5. Moving to AI on the edge
AI has traditionally been deployed on the cloud, however in many situations AI-based data crunching and decisions need to be made locally, on devices that are close to the edge of the network. There’s a misconception that edge computing will replace the Cloud, however on the contrary, it functions in conjunction with the Cloud. In 2021 we’ll see a rise of AI moving to the edge for many reasons such as privacy, security and latency.
"Due to COVID-19, executives have realized that future-proofing organizations is more important than ever. Many organizations will accelerate the implementation of intelligent automation next year, ”said Jasper Wognum, CEO and Co-Founder of BrainCreators. "To make this transition successful, organizations need to focus on scaling human expertise and know how to deploy it using innovative AI-powered technology."
These predictions are based on input from BrainCreators research team and our market observations.