Learn Better (or Better Learn)

Last week, we welcomed a new guest in our home - a Digital Assitant! the magic words "Hey Google" (sorry Alexa & Cortana users) have become our favorite words as a family and everyone wants to talk to it. We are talking more with each other about talking to our new friend!

This experience got me thinking:

• There is a "new level of transparency" in the house. Earlier, I would check the traffic situation on my phone before stepping out and discuss alternative routes/times/destinations with my wife. Now, "Hey Google, Good Morning" updates everyone instantly about the traffic, weather etc.
• There is a sudden "increase in expectations" about the limitless possibilities like the kids asking Google about the location of their friends who are late for playtime and me trying to play songs using music apps beyond Spotify. The assistant responds with a smart but polite answer in case it's beyond its current capabilities.
• "Personalisation is now taken for granted" as the assistant automatically understands voices/accents from adults to kids and provides relevant route information based on the account history.

But the keyword lies in this response:

I can't help with this yet!

This not only is a hopeful and positive statement but it is a testament to continual learning based on the data that we generate as individuals. Whatever it can't do, it will learn very soon and that will delight us. It will also encourage us to connect more things and perform more actions - my current list includes air conditioning, lights, and fans to start with.

Last month, I was in the UK with my family and happened to chat with a few friendly Uber drivers. Most of them had been with Uber for over 1-3 years and their primary reason to choose Uber was the "flexibility" - with a push of a button, they can switch off, and no more shifts/hours to complete! and when they want to start work again, they will push the same button and Uber will intelligently give them jobs to get back to prime locations to maximize their income. This system is learning all the time to enable this. Kudos to the Uber team for making their lives truly better!

Now, if we want to achieve to work smart and be more efficient in our jobs, we need to accept the reality that these self-learning intelligent machines are now (not will be, not maybe) working alongside us. Obviously, there are some fears: could some jobs be gone forever? could a Terminator Skynet situation occur? We need to contextualize and address them specifically.

Whether we want to sell better to our customers, optimize a product's lifecycle, improve finance processes, or automate the supply chain; Machine Learning is bound to play a big role in all these areas. Its benefits transcend work and personal boundaries (see the AI-powered picture at the top)

And remember, whatever "cannot be done today" is simply "cannot be done just yet"!

Note: This article merely captures my personal views on this fascinating topic. For more in-depth commentaries on artificial intelligence and machine learning, please refer to the articles and posts shared by the gurus in my network and beyond :-)