Artificial intelligence is setting new expectations for how future interactions with technology will work

No longer just a back-end tool for companies, artificial intelligence (AI) is taking on more sophisticated roles within technology interfaces—and setting high standards for future interactions.

For nearly 17 years, Accenture has taken a comprehensive look across the enterprise landscape to identify emerging technology trends that hold the greatest potential to disrupt businesses, industries and people.

For this year’s Technology Vision, Accenture conducted a global survey of more than 5,400 business and IT executives across 31 countries to understand their perspectives on the impact of technology on their organizations, and to identify their priority technology investments over the next few years. In this series, I will share our insights and predictions for artificial intelligence (AI) as a new user interface (UI).

AI sets new standards

From autonomous driving vehicles that use computer vision, to live translations made possible by artificial neural networks, AI is making every interface both simple and smart—and setting a high bar for how future interactions will work. We expect AI to act as the face of a company’s digital brand and a key differentiator—and become a core competency demanding of C-level investment and strategy.

And businesses are taking note. Based on our survey1:

• 79 percent of executives agree that AI will revolutionize the way they gain information from and interact with customers.
• 85 percent of executives report they will invest extensively in AI-related technologies over the next three years.
• 79 percent agree that AI will help accelerate technology adoption throughout their organizations.
• 27 percent believe AI will completely transform their organizations over the next three years.

As AI matures, many of the problems that hindered adoption in the past are disappearing. It’s now consistently being used to add frictionless intelligence to people’s interactions with technology—driving wider, faster technology adoption and providing better outcomes for people.

In short, AI is poised to allow companies to improve the experience and outcome for every critical customer interaction.

AI takes on more sophisticated roles

But even today, AI already plays a variety of roles throughout the user experience:

• At the simplest level, AI curates content.
• In a more significant advisor role, AI applies machine learning to guide actions toward the best outcome.
• At the height of sophistication, AI orchestrates, collaborating across experiences and channels, often behind the scenes, to accomplish tasks.

Source: Technology Vision 2017: Technology for People - The Era of the Intelligent Enterprise. Accenture, 2017.

Despite initial skepticism, it’s no coincidence AI is growing so pervasively; its reach reflects the value and potential it brings to interactions, making each one more natural and simple. Advances in natural language processing and machine learning, for example, make technology more intuitive to use. With its ease of use and performance outpacing traditional interfaces, AI is raising the bar.

As the way people interact with technology becomes a primary point of competition and distinction, the enterprise faces a new universal imperative: to add AI to strengthen critical customer interaction. In my next post, I will discuss how AI defines the future of the customer experience.

Until then, take a look at our Technology Vision 2017 page to learn more.