THE VALUE OF AI: now and the future (PART 3) AI Predictions and Future

This article is third in a 3-part series on THE VALUE OF AI: now and the future — catch up on the?first ?and?second ?in the series.?

THE VALUE OF AI: now and the future (3-part series)

(PART 1) AI Impacts, Risks and Value for Business, Industry, Society and Humanity

(PART 2) AI Failures, Pitfalls, Key Learnings and Success

(PART 3) AI Predictions and Future?

In this final part of the three-part series on THE VALUE OF AI: now and the future, the article first looks at what's next for AI in the near-term and the future of AI (long-term). It explores key?AI predictions?provided by prominent leaders and futurists in the field, before concluding with some overall final key findings and takeaways on the?future of AI?and what it means for business, industry, society and humanity?— suggesting?the way we?live,?work, play?and?our overall?human experience?will change?in the coming years?—?and beyond all recognition over the course of the next century. AI will continue to proliferate, the pandemic, along with future pandemics and other disasters will continue to?hyper-accelerate?AI adoption even further.?Today, AI is evolving across all three dimensions —?compute,?data?and?algorithms?— which sets the context for its adoption across all realms of?life?and?work?in future.?The future will be?AI-enabled?and?less patient. There will not be any major vertical left untouched by AI —?we will live in an?AI-powered,?AI-driven?world —?the AI-enabled future.

Every day we see continued development of new technologies, new applications and greater investment in?Artificial Intelligence (AI),?Machine Learning (ML)?and the host of?cognitive technologies. While we might be able to easily see how some of these technologies will be implemented in the short-term,?what does the future hold for the widespread adoption of AI??Artificial intelligence progress comes with its fair share of impacts and concerns, including job loss, many trust, privacy and ethical implications including that of?computer integration with conscious thought.?We will take a closer look to see what AI predictions reveal — for 2021 to 2050, 50 and 100 years from now and beyond.

21st century?pioneer companies?are already using AI to innovate and grow fast. Platform companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, IBM and Microsoft are investing in the study and creation of AI. They are working towards creating AI and?making it more accessible?for companies.

Some of the AI failure statistics shared in my?second ?article (PART 2) might seem disheartening for most companies that are turning to AI for positive impacts like?greater revenue,?lower costs?and more?personalized, effective?customer experiences, but we are starting to see some signs of promise. In 2021,?VentureBeat ?predict that companies will start to overcome the 80% failure rate of deployment.?Gartner ?has further predicted that by 2024, 75% of?organizations will shift from piloting to operationalizing AI. This change in momentum will be driven by?greater accessibility to data?and the development of highly?flexible models?to adapt to specific business needs.

The bottom line is this:?Businesses that understand how to harness AI can surge ahead. Those that neglect it will fall behind. The future world of AI will most likely have much greater impact in a much different way than what we might be assuming today.

AI NOW

To successfully understand the?artificial intelligence predictions?from?2021 to 2050 and beyond, we must cover the last few decades, until now as well. For a snapshot on AI now and how we got here — catch up on the?first ?and?second ?articles in this?3-part series.

Today?77% of the world’s population uses an AI-powered device or service , even though only 33% are aware of this. AI predictions state this technology will be accessible to even more people. To paint a further picture of?AI now?through a?consumer lense, PEGA (2019) asked 6,000 global consumers what they think of AI and customer engagement. Here’s what they found:?

Finding 1 - Consumers unwittingly use more AI than they realize

• Only 33% think they use technology with AI

BUT

• 77% actually use an AI-powered service or device

Finding 2 - People think they get AI...but they really don’t

• 70% say they understand AI

BUT

• 50% don’t understand AI can solve problems
• 37% don’t understand AI can interpret speech
• 35% don’t understand AI can mimic humans

Finding 3 - AI today doesn’t meet expectations and stirs up fears ...

• 70% are fearful of AI
• Only 27% think AI can deliver the same or better customer service than humans

Finding 4 - ... making consumers unsure if businesses should use it with them

• one-third are comfortable with it
• one-third are neutral
• one-third are uncomfortable with it

Finding 5 - Despite all this, the future for AI in CX looks bright

• 73% are open to businesses using AI with them if it makes life easier
• 38% think AI will soon improve customer service?
• Only 26% that disagree

AI technology is progressing quickly and leading businesses are?tuning their AI strategy?to?change how they engage with customers.

WHAT'S NEXT — AI in the Near-Term

As the market for AI increases over the next few years, it is?critical that enterprises recover from any project errors or failures. Even if an organization has experienced an AI failure, it is imperative that organisations?learn from their mistakes. One area to consider improving on is?data management?which is critical to AI success.

Overcoming AI Project failure rates will be challenging?for most companies large and small, yet?the future is looking brighter?for many reasons. The first is that?data is more accessible and abundant?than ever before. When we recall that effective Machine Learning (ML) is data-driven, we should expect to see models that produce greater accuracy, models that cover more specific use cases where data may have been hard to come by in the past and models that work better for more end users.

The second trend that we are seeing is that yes,?we are learning. The wealth of information available now has allowed companies and organisations to see what others are doing in this space. Companies are increasingly conquering some of the challenges, mistakes and failures of the past by gaining knowledge around?best practices?and?common pitfalls. More resources are available now ever before with more and more examples of real-world success and failure stories and providing further valuable knowledge and real-world experiences.

With these latest AI learnings and best practices, we can expect increasingly more companies pursuing AI to succeed.?Despite the COVID-19 pandemic,?it seems that AI projects may have accelerated and advanced because of it.?As highlighted by Gartner, already social distancing has resulted in the development of?AI that’s more flexible ?to changing supply chains and customer demands. This flexibility may create even more flexible and robust AI solutions that are increasingly?adaptable to change?and more?resilient?in the face of this and potential further future pandemics and related disasters (such as, extreme heatwaves and storms) and longer-term.

We are now at a?critical turning point?for AI projects, ventures and investments, as many?shift away from failure and towards success. Considering the latest developments and the above-mentioned factors collectively, the future for AI projects is looking brighter and will accelerate.?The companies that?learn, adapt?and?mobilize quickly?will be front-runners, better equipped to reach deployment, and ultimately, will?attain profitability and realize some of the value of AI.

LOOKING FORWARD: The Future of AI (long-term)

We are definitely in unchartered waters.?Whilst AI and ML are being positioned as?the next great step forward for humanity?— we still have a long way to go before society realizes the benefits and value whilst carefully avoiding the many potential pitfalls and threats of these?powerful technologies,?yet it is not without criticisms and concerns. As with any emerging themes and technologies,?the field of AI and its evolution is dynamic and constantly shifting.?Every single day we research, develop, learn and reveal new findings, ideas, innovations and breakthroughs.

Artificial intelligence is already impacting the future of virtually every industry and every human being.?Artificial intelligence has acted as the main driver of emerging technologies like big data, robotics and Internet of Things (IoT) and it will continue to act as a?technological innovator for the foreseeable future.

The AI-enabled Future

One way of looking into the future that AI might bring is through?Cognilytica’s (2018)?four-part AI enabled vision of the future. ?In that vision, there are four main aspects in which?AI will impact our future lives: the way we work, the way we live, the way we experience the world and our interactions with each other, and the relationship we have with data.?

Source: Cognilytica (2018)

According to Cognilytica (2018) an?AI-Enabled Future?enables:

• The new workforce and the always-on organization?— it should be no surprise that organizations in industries of all types are?looking to AI to change the way that they run their businesses?and that the COVID-19 pandemic has further?accelerated?this. As such,?the adoption of AI?will necessarily and unavoidably?change the nature of work.?AI is?eliminating much of the drudgery and repetitive work?that has been farmed to service workers. The use of various forms of process automation, from the less-intelligent, and ill-named robotic process automation (RPA), to the more intelligent?cognitive automation ?forms, it’s clear that?AI is here to stay in the organization. In the?not-too-distant future, there will be just as many?software?and?hardware bots?operating the?back and front offices?of businesses as there are humans in the organization, and quite likely,?many more bots than humans. A key change that AI brings is the “always-on organization”. With the use of conversational agents and autonomous bots,?there’s very little reason for businesses to close. This is not only limited to e-commerce and purely digital operations.?The AI-enabled future means 24-hr coffee shops that are fully automated, and banks that no longer operate on “bankers hours”.?In the AI-enabled future, businesses simply don’t have hours of operation. They’re always in operation.?
• The future is Autonomous?—?AI is empowering the ability for autonomous operation of all types. It means that we can have?autonomous systems and operations of all sorts, from the?autonomous software bots?performing the perfunctory work required in most processes to the?vision of autonomous retail?currently being innovated by Amazon Go and others. The?combination?of?computer vision, machine learning, natural language processing, predictive analytics?and the world of?intelligent sensors and devices?means that?we will be awash in autonomous systems of all sorts pervasive in our daily lives.
• Changing our relationship with data (Pervasive Knowledge)?— the internet and mobile phones have completely changed the way we interact with others and the world around us — now we carry with us constantly-connected devices that have worldwide access to information.?And now through AI, we are moving beyond the idea of pervasive computing to pervasive knowledge. Pervasive knowledge is the idea that not only are we always going to be connected to the worldwide information grid, but?all systems will have constant knowledge of what we are doing and how we are doing it.?What if the system already knew that you were or weren’t in the path of a storm, could guide you to a safe place to seek shelter, and would additionally notify first responders if the storm hit the location where you were??This is the idea of?pervasive knowledge made tangible?and it?will impact everything from the way we shop to the way we live.?
• To many,?pervasive knowledge means pervasive surveillance powered by AI?— the problem with pervasive knowledge is the “creepy” factor. We do not want systems to know where we are and what we are doing,?yet today we freely give this information away with our GPS-enabled phones connected to social media with cameras.?We are actually already freely giving this information in exchange for all the modern conveniences?afforded by that pervasive connectivity.?So too we will see people giving information to contribute to pervasive knowledge in exchange for even greater conveniences.?The AI-enabled future will be a world where there is?more access to all types of information and we are going to demand that those who have access to it use it smartly and use it for our benefit.? We won’t be patient with giving people information that we will presume they already should know.?The future will be AI-enabled and less patient.
• Enhancing the Human Experience?— in addition to our work lives,?AI will soon be a part of our overall human experience. We will come to use and sometimes?rely on AI systems?to enhance our daily interactions with each other, expand our creativity, and give us ways to express ourselves that we can’t otherwise do today.?AI systems are also having a great influence on how we communicate and socialize with each other.?In the AI-enabled future, humans will be able to converse and interact with each other in the?native language of choice, not having to worry about miscommunicating intentions. ML models will be able to understand context, nuance and colloquialisms that help to fill the gaps of human communication.?AI is going to help us continue to meet our need to connect with others in meaningful ways.?

Will AI steal your job?

The possibility of?artificially intelligent systems replacing much of modern manual labour?is perhaps?a more credible near-future possibility.?Whilst AI will not replace all jobs, what seems to be certain is that?AI will change the nature of work, with the only question being?how rapidly?and?how profoundly?automation will alter the workplace.

There is barely a field of human endeavour that AI does not have the potential to impact.?As?AI expert Andrew Ng puts it : "many people are doing routine, repetitive jobs. Unfortunately, technology is especially good at automating routine, repetitive work", saying he sees a "significant risk of technological unemployment over the next few decades". The?evidence of which jobs will be automated is starting to emerge. There are now 27?Amazon Go ?stores and cashier-free supermarkets where customers just take items from the shelves and walk out in the US. Amazon again is leading the way in using robots to improve efficiency inside its warehouses. These?robots carry shelves of products to human pickers ?who select items to be sent out. Amazon has more than 200,000 bots in its fulfilment centers, with plans to add more. Amazon and?small robotics firms are working on automating the remaining manual jobs in the warehouse .

Fully?autonomous self-driving vehicles?are not a reality yet, but by some predictions, the?self-driving trucking industry ?alone is poised to?take over 1.7 million jobs in the next decade, even without considering the impact on couriers and taxi drivers. Yet, some of the easiest jobs to automate will not even require robotics. At present, there are millions of people working in administration, entering and copying data between systems, chasing and booking appointments for companies as software gets better at automatically updating systems and flagging the important information, so the need for administrators will fall.

As with every technological shift,?new jobs will be created to replace those lost.?However,?what is uncertain is whether these new roles will be created rapidly enough ?to offer employment to those displaced and whether the newly unemployed will have the necessary skills or temperament to fill these emerging roles. For some,?AI is a technology that will augment rather than replace workers . Not only that, but they argue there will be a commercial imperative to not replace people outright, as an AI-assisted worker — think a human concierge with an AR headset that tells them exactly what a client wants before they ask for it — will be more productive or effective than an AI working on its own.

There is a broad range of opinions about?how quickly?artificially intelligent systems will surpass human capabilities among AI experts. Oxford University's Future of Humanity Institute?asked several hundred machine-learning experts to predict AI capabilities ?over the coming decades. Notable dates included AI writing essays that could pass for being written by a human?by 2026, truck drivers being made redundant by 2027, AI surpassing human capabilities in retail by 2031, writing a best-seller by 2049, and doing a surgeon's work by 2053.?They estimated there was a relatively high chance that AI beats humans at all tasks within 45 years and automates all human jobs within 120 years.

The Jobs of Tomorrow

New technologies, products and services in the AI-enabled future are?driving greater demand for new jobs?in the industries listed below. The roles are organized below their corresponding industries and are ordered by the scale of each opportunity.

AI and Human Intelligence

Before looking yet even further into the future, we must all ask ourselves a simple question:?“Are computers as smart or even smarter than humans?”

We are yet to reach the level of the human brain capacity in calculations per second. According to Wikipedia (2021)?Moore’s Law?and?David House’s prediction,?computers double their processing power every 18 months. David House was one of Silicon Valley's most accomplished tech executives, previously an Intel Executive. If the trend continues we will reach the capacity of the human brain in 2025. That is not set in stone, though, since Moore’s law could reach its limits in the 2020s and there could be an entirely new way of creating computers. Until then, however, computing and AI will keep improving and evolving. This brings me to the next point —?what is AI capable of so far?

When looking towards?the future of AI, when we say that AI may eventually?match human intelligence, the starting point should be an understanding of?what “human intelligence” is. And the picture of human intelligence is quite fuzzy. According to IEEE (2020) there are several types of human intelligence that have been identified (or classified, since it is not a partitioning that is based on some objective facts). Most experts in the field?classify them into 9 types?— refer to the diagram below.

Source: IEEE (2020)

If you look at the?9 types of intelligence?you can easily find types that are fitting a machine (software), like?mathematical?and?logical?capabilities, where we have several demonstration of capabilities. Other areas, like “Spatial” involving the perception of 3D space and its implication, are now?addressable by a machine?in a very effective way, although leveraging on very little “intelligence”. As an example self-driving cars use a variety of?sensors?(LIDAR and image sensors) and lot of number crunching to create a 3D model of the surrounding, than apply some form of AI to make sense of it (like identifying objects and then deriving the probability of behaviour. This sort of “machine intelligence” does not exactly map onto human spatial intelligence that includes characteristics like orientation, something difficult for us (in principle — imagine being stranded in the middle of nowhere…) but quite straightforward for a machine having access to a GPS.

Other areas, like “Musical?or?Linguistics” have been considered “out of reach” for machines, but we have seen in these last few years examples of machines (software) that?can create ?“music”,?paintings ?and?poetry ?to a level that can fool people (including experts). The difference with people, of course, is that a composer would enjoy what is doing and be proud of the result, sensations that are not present in a machine.

Other areas, like “Social Intelligence” would seem to be far from a machine. However, we have seen significant progress in?social robotics?that ends up in machine that can establish an empathic relation with people.

So what are the many predictions that?AI will achieve human-level intelligence really about??According to IEEE (2020), it is not about the?essence of Intelligence, it is about “performance”. If a machine can perform as well as a human being in a broad variety of contexts and situations that?would require “being smart”,?thus?allowing the replacement of a human with a machine, than we can say that AI is “au pair” with human intelligence, like:

• can we replace a?poker partner with AI ?
• can we replace a?pilot with AI ?
• can we replace a?medical doctor with AI ?
• can we replace a?financial advisor with AI ?
• can we replace a?teacher with AI ?
• can we replace a?journalist with AI ?

The list can go on and on.?If you like to explore a bit more, click on the links and you will see what is already possible today in using AI to replace people.?However, here the crucial point may seem to be in the words: “a broad variety of contexts and situations”. All the above examples, and many more, seem to point to the fact that we have,?today, the capability to replace a person with AI in a specific domain. It may not be done in practice, because of cost or because of some shortcomings, but it is obvious that?in the near future the cost will go down and many of the shortcomings will be overcome.?So we can say that performance achieved in a specific sector is not a proof of having reached a human-like intelligence, only that we are able to develop expert systems in that domain.

This is not about a philosophical discussion on the equality of machine and human intelligence, it is about the?availability, by the?end of this decade?of an artificial intelligence?able to perform as well as humans?in a broad variety of fields. It is not suggesting that AI will create music and “enjoy” the piece it has created, nor that an AI pilot will feel proud after a particularly tricky landing.

"Taking into account that we are now moving towards?open AI, that is the possibility to access AI functionality from any object, thus spreading out the intelligence in any ambient and, conversely, to have any object contributing to an emerging AI (by harvesting / sharing data and creating local intelligence)?this is a concrete possibility that will be implemented, step by step, over the coming years" (IEEE, 2020).

The ultimate AI threat to Society and the Future

Hollywood has provided films and memorable?visions of the threat AI might pose to society,?from Arthur C. Clarke’s?2001: A Space Odyssey ?through?Robocop ?and?Terminator ?to more recent movies such as?Her ?and?Transcendence , all of which paint a?dystopian view of a future transformed by AI.

Will AI eventually kill us??Again, it depends on who you ask. As AI-powered systems have grown more capable, so to have the warnings of the downsides and threats have become more dire. Tesla and?SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has claimed ?that?AI is a "fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization". As part of his?push for stronger regulatory oversight?and?more responsible research into mitigating the downsides of AI, he set up?OpenAI, a non-profit artificial intelligence research company that aims to?promote and develop friendly AI?that will benefit society as a whole. Similarly, the esteemed physicist?Stephen Hawking?warned that once a sufficiently advanced AI is created, it?will rapidly advance to the point at which it vastly outstrips human capabilities . A phenomenon is known as a?singularity and could pose an existential threat to the human race.

AI researchers and experts are fiercely divided over how soon?General AI?and?Super AI?will become a reality. Some continue to?downplay and dismiss the potential threat of dystopia?and the notion that humanity is on the verge of an AI explosion that will dwarf human intellect seems far-fetched and ludicrous to some AI researchers. Chris Bishop, Microsoft's director of research in Cambridge, England,?stresses how different the narrow intelligence of AI today is from the general intelligence of humans , saying that when people worry about "Terminator and the rise of the machines and so on? Utter nonsense, yes. At best, such discussions are decades away".

AI that might threaten our society’s future is likely still some way off.?AI researchers have been predicting that it will take another 30 to 40 years from now —?they have however being saying that repeatedly for the last 30 or 40 years and will likely continue to say that.?On a positive note, replicating the sort of intelligence that humans display —?to reach General AI or AGI, let alone Super AI or ASI?—?will require significant shifts and advances in AI. This speaks to both the immense complexity and interconnectedness of the human brain, and to the magnitude of the challenge of building an AGI and ASI with our current resources. While machines can perform some tasks better than humans (eg, data processing), this fully realized vision of?general AI does not yet exist. That is why?human-machine collaboration ?as highlighted by Accenture is crucial —?in today’s world, artificial intelligence remains an extension of human capabilities, not a replacement.

AI PREDICTIONS —?2022 to 2120 and beyond

Key AI predictions will now be further explored?— the predictions have been provided by prominent leaders and futurists in the field across the globe. This is not meant to be a definitive list, these will be used to highlight some of the key predictions, enough to illustrate what an AI-enabled future may be like.

All artificial intelligence future predictions show?an overwhelming increase in the implementation of AI in the business sector.?While the global AI market was worth?$4.8 billion in 2017 , it’s going to increase almost forty times?by 2025?as it reaches almost?$190.61 billion?(AI Magazine, 2021).

Each of these predictions is?enough to make AI-watchers sit up and take notice,?but when combined?it creates a picture of a future rife with ethical concerns,?potential?misuse of AI and loss of privacy in the workplace.?

Let's now take a closer look at AI Predictions and the future of AI.

AI PREDICTIONS?—?by 2022

• Gartner?(2019)?predicts?that the?value of the AI industry?will expand from $1.2 trillion in 2018 to?over $3.9 trillion?by 2022, and?data will play a key part?in that.
• The?artificial intelligence market size in telecommunications?is expected to grow to?$2,497.8?million?by 2022?(Markets and Markets, 2018).
• In 2022, companies are expected to have an average of?35 AI projects?in place?(Gartner, 2019).?
• Through 2022,?85% of AI projects will deliver erroneous outcomes?due to bias in data, algorithms, or the teams responsible for managing them?(Gartner ,?2018).
• Through 2022,?only 20%?of analytic insights?will deliver business outcomes?(Gartner, 2019).
• AI embedded in analytics and other marketing software?will free up more than one-third of data analysts?in marketing organizations?by 2022?(Gartner , 2019).
• GlobalData?(2021) believes understanding the pace of growth in key drivers of?technology innovation – Patents and Funding?– are ideally suited to identify the?key inflection points in a technology evolution?which enables?making the right technology bets at the right time. Combining the two chief drivers of innovation, GlobalData has developed the?Technology Innovation Intensity (TII)?indicator, which yields the below?top 15?innovation-led technologies to bet on which will likely deliver the biggest strategic advantage in the future. Future technology bets:?15 innovation-led technologies?which includes AI/ML enabled?and data-driven to?watch out for in 2022?(GlobalData, 2021).?GlobalData’s TII indicator is?subjected to robust external validation?to test its?predictive?nature.

GlobalData's?(2021)?Technology Innovation Intensity (TII)?leverages key innovation drivers like ‘patents’ and ‘deals’ from GlobalData’s proprietary alternative datasets to track a technology’s pace of innovation and its lifecycle stage. The?TII indicator?is composed of four factors:?1) Patent Applications 2) Patent Grants 3) Venture Capital (VC)/ Private Equity (PE) Deals and 4) M&A / IPO Deals.

AI PREDICTIONS — by 2023

• IDC?(2021)?predicts, “by 2023, more than?50% of new enterprise infrastructure deployments will be at the edge?rather than corporate data centers,?up from less than 10% today".?
• Gartner?(2021)?predicts that?by 2023, 20% of successful account takeover attacks will use?deepfakes as part of social engineering attacks,?generated by this type of AI?(second-order consequences). "AI capabilities that can create and generate hyper-realistic content will have a transformational effect on the extent to which people can trust their own eyes," the report said.
• Gartner?(2021)?predicts that?by 2023,?the number of?people with disabilities employed will triple?due to AI and emerging technologies, reducing barriers to access. “People with disabilities constitute an untapped pool of critically skilled talent”. Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and other emerging technologies have made work more accessible for employees with disabilities.?
• Gartner?(2021)?predicts that?by 2023, a?self-regulating association for oversight of AI and machine learning designers will be established in at least four of the G7 countries. “Regulation of products as complex as AI and ML algorithms is no easy task.?Consequences of algorithm failures at scale?that occur within major societal functions are?becoming more visible.?
• Gartner?(2021)?predicts that?by 2023,?up to?30% of world news?and?video content?will be?authenticated as real by blockchain?countering deep fake technology.

AI PREDICTIONS — by 2024

• AI has already and will continue its meteoric successful rise in determining our interests and serving us ads that the?global digital ad industry is projected to double?and cross the?US $600 billion?mark?by 2024?(Statista, 2021).
• According to a?JPMorgan?(2021), the?AI powered algorithmic trading market?is?expected to?grow by?$4 billion by 2024, bringing the?total volume to $19 billion.?The stockmarket will continue its?supercharged rise and be run by?AI-powered algorithms and passive managers -?using?data and?AI-powered algorithms,?giving them seemingly tremendous superpowers and edge?in the?financial stock markets,?supercharging their profits.
• Gartner?(2020)?predicts?that?by 2024,?25% of traditional large-organisations CIOs?will be held?accountable for [AI-enabled] digital business operational results, effectively becoming “COO by proxy”.
• IDC?(2021)?predicts?that?by 2024, the number of?apps at the edge will increase 800%.
• IDC?(2021)?predicts?that?by 2024,?over 50% of user interface interactions will use AI-enabled computer vision, speech, natural language processing and AR/VR.
• Gartner?(2020)?predicts?that?three-quarters of enterprises will 'operationalize' AI?by 2024?—?AI implementation will move away from the pilot stage toward?operationalization?at 75% of companies?by 2024, according to Gartner's?Top 10 Data and Analytics Technology Trends for 2020 report .?Almost every enterprise, from the top players to the startups, would have?integrated artificial intelligence in their businesses?by 2024.
• Thanks to?low-code and no-code ?tools on the rise,?80% of new business technology could be created outside of IT?by 2024,?according to Gartner ?(2020).
• Deloitte (2020) predicts?that?by 2024?we will be?bringing AI to the device: Edge AI chips?come into their own —?sales of edge AI chips to exceed 1.5 billion. It is also suggested that the?hybrid cloud / edge AI model?will grow in popularity. These edge AI chips will likely find their way into an?increasing number of consumer devices, such as high-end smartphones, tablets, smart speakers and wearables. They will also be used in?multiple enterprise markets:?robots, cameras, sensors and other IoT devices in general.?Until recently, AI computations have almost all been?performed remotely in data centers,?on enterprise core appliances, or on telecom edge processors?— not locally on devices. ?Now, edge AI chips will change all that.?By enabling these devices to perform processor-intensive AI computations locally,?edge AI chips reduce or eliminate the need to send large amounts of data to a remote location?— thereby delivering benefits in?usability, speed, data security and privacy. The diagram below shows the?various locations where AI computing can occur, all of which are likely to coexist for the foreseeable future.?An increase in the?generation of real-time data as IoT sensors spread all around us?will further the need for both ML to make sense of the data and also for AI on the edge.

• Gartner?(2021)?predicts that?by 2024,?AI identification of emotions will influence more than half of the online advertisements you see.?Artificial Emotional Intelligence (AEI)?is the next frontier for AI development, especially for companies hoping to detect emotions in order to?influence buying decisions.?
• By 2024,?voice assistants?outfitted with natural language processing technology?may outnumber the human race at?8.4?billion devices?(Statista, 2020).
• Digital assistant usage?worldwide is?expected to double to 8.4 billion?by 2024?(Juniper Research, 2020).
• Gartner?(2021)?predicts that?by 2024,?60% of AI providers?will include?harm/misuse mitigation?as a part of their software.
• Gartner?(2021)?predicts that?by 2024, AI and emerging technologies such as virtual personal assistants and chatbots?will replace almost 69% of the manager’s workload.
• Elon Musk plans to send the first crewed mission ?to the red planet (Mars). At some point between 2022 and?2024, SpaceX might also launch a new kind of city-to-city transport aboard an earth-to-earth version of the BFR?(Futurism, 2017).

AI PREDICTIONS — by 2025

• All artificial intelligence future predictions show an overwhelming?increase in the implementation of AI?in the business sector. While the global AI market was worth?$4.8 billion in 2017 , it’s going to?increase almost twenty-fold?by?2025?as it reaches almost?$90 billion.
• IDC?(2021)?predicts?that?by 2025,?20% of revenue growth?will be from ‘white space’ offerings that combine digital services [AI-enabled] from previously unlinked industries, and one-fifth of partners are from previously unlinked industries.”
• IDC?(2021)?predicts?that?by 2025, “at least?90% of new enterprise apps will embed AI.
• IDC?(2021)?predicts ten-fold increase in data?by 2025?-?data creation will swell to a total of?163 zettabytes (ZB).?In 2020, 64.2ZB of data was created or replicated. "The amount of digital data created over the next five years will be greater than twice the amount of data created since the advent of digital storage".
• IDC?(2021)?predicts?that?by 2025, on embedded systems and the Internet of Things (IoT) [enabled by AI]?—?an?average connected person?anywhere in the world will interact with connected devices nearly?4,800 times per day?— that’s?an interaction every 18 seconds.
• IDC?(2021)?predicts?that?by 2025,?on?true mobile and real-time data, more than?a quarter of data created will be real-time?in nature?and?IoT real-time data?will constitute over?95% of it.
• Servion?(2018)?predicts?that,?by 2025,?AI will power 95% of all customer interactions,?including live telephone and online conversations that will leave customers unable to ‘spot the bot’. At the same time,?consumer expectations?that?businesses use visual technologies?such as?virtual?and?augmented reality?and?holograms, are set to skyrocket.
• Frost and Sullivan?(2019)?predict 26 smart cities will be built by 2025 – from zero today.?An uncertain?post-pandemic?situation will compel cities to focus on?developing collaborative, data-driven infrastructure?for use in healthcare, public security services and more.?Artificial intelligence and data-driven solutions?are expected to be in high demand, with growing opportunities for?crowd analytics, open data dashboards and digital city services.?Cities have already invested in contact-tracing wearables and apps, open data platforms, autonomous drones and crowd analytics to fight COVID-19, according to the report, and?smart grids, intelligent traffic management, autonomous vehicles, smart lighting and e-governance services are expected to gain traction when the pandemic passes.?
• Gartner?(2021)?predicts?that?by 2025,?70% of organizations will shift their focus from big to?small and wide data, providing more context for analytics and making artificial intelligence (AI) less data hungry. Both approaches facilitate?more robust analytics and AI, reducing an organization’s dependency on big data and?enabling a richer, more complete situational awareness or 360-degree view. Potential areas where small and wide data can be used are demand forecasting in retail, real-time behavioral and emotional intelligence in customer service applied to hyper-personalization and customer experience improvement.
• Gartner?(2021)?predicts?that?by 2025,?75% of conversations at work will be recorded and analysed [AI-powered], enabling the discovery of added organisational value or risk.
• Gartner?(2021)?predicts?that?by 2024,?30% of major organisations?will use a?new “Voice of Society” metric?to act on societal issues and assess the impacts to their business performance.?The “Voice of Society” is the shared perspective of people in a community — one that works toward acceptable outcomes for all by advocating for fair and equal representation and adherence to ethical values — including?responsible AI.
• Gartner?(2021)?predicts?that?by 2024,?malicious content takes over -moderation services for user-generated content will be surveyed as a top CEO priority by 30% of large organisations.?With most social unrest spilling in to the virtual world, content volatility on social media has increased. Investing in content moderation, enforcement and reporting services will be?critical for businesses?to understand the providence of the content on their sites. Brand advertisers will become responsible for neutralizing polarizing content using?hybrid human-AI systems, especially as industry standards for content moderation will emerge.
• Dr Ian Pearson?(Futurist with an 85% accuracy record)?predicts?that?by 2025?smartphones will be rendered obsolete?thanks to advancements in augmented reality?(Business Insider, 2016).
• The?global AI market?is?predicted?to snowball in the next few years, reaching a?$190.61 billion?market value?in 2025?(AI Magazine, 2021).?
• The?global wearable AI market?size is?predicted?to reach?$180 billion?by 2025,?according to a new research report by?Global Market Insights, Inc.?(2019).
• By 2025,?a new era of computing?—?quantum computing will have outgrown its infancy,?and a first generation of commercial devices will be able tackle meaningful, real-world problems.?They will significantly shorten product development cycles and reduce the costs for R&D?(World Economic Forum, 2020).
• Gartner?(2021)?predicts?that?by 2025,?at least?two of the top 10 global retailers will establish robot resource organizations?to manage non-human workers.
• By 2025,?Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PET)?as a technology category?will become mainstream. They will be a foundational element of?enterprise privacy and security strategies?rather than an added-on component integrated only meet a minimum compliance threshold (World Economic Forum, 2020). While?the world will still lack a global privacy standard, organizations will embrace a?data-centric approach to security?that provides the flexibility necessary to adapt to regional regulations and consumer expectations.
• By 2025,?healthcare systems will adopt more preventative health approaches?based on the developing science behind the health benefits of plant-rich, nutrient-dense diets?(World Economic Forum, 2020).
• By 2025, this ubiquitous stream of data and the intelligent algorithms crunching it will enable manufacturing lines to continuously optimize towards higher levels of output and product quality —?AI-optimized manufacturing?—?reducing overall waste in manufacturing by up to 50%. As a result, we will enjoy higher quality products, produced faster, at lower cost to our pocketbooks and the environment?(World Economic Forum, 2020).
• Statistics about technology taking over jobs?predict?that?technology services will replace?16%?of U.S. workers?by 2025?(Forrester, 2016).
• Half of all work tasks will be handled by machines?by 2025?in a shift likely to worsen inequality?(World Economic Forum, 2020).
• By 2025,?85 million jobs may be displaced?by a shift in the division of labour between humans and machines, while?97 million new roles?may?emerge?that are more adapted to the new division of labour between humans, machines and algorithms, across the 15 industries and 26 economies?(World Economic Forum, 2020).
• By 2025,?growing job demand?for?97 million people?will be needed for jobs such as AI and machine learning specialists, process automation specialists, big data specialists and more?(World Economic Forum, 2020).
• 80%?of retail executives?expect their businesses to adopt artificial intelligence automation?by 2025?(Analytics Insight , 2021).
• By 2025, the?retail industry?will be able to relinquish over?95%?of online and telephone communications?to artificial intelligence technology?(Servion, 2018).
• Gartner?(2021)?predicts?that?by 2025,?pre-trained AI models will be largely concentrated among 1% of vendors, making responsible use of AI a societal concern.
• Gartner?(2021)?predicts that?by 2025,?10% of governments will avoid privacy and security concerns?by?using synthetic populations?to train AI.?
• Gartner?(2021)?predicts?that?by 2025,?75% of workplace conversations will be recorded and analyzed?for use in adding organizational value and assessing risk.
• Elon Musk?warns that the current trends?predict artificial intelligence services will overtake humans?by 2025?(Independent, 2020).

Elon Musk AI predictions?show that?he does not see much good?in the coming age of Artificial Intelligence.

AI PREDICTIONS?—?by 2026

• Bloomberg?(2021) projects that?AI-powered passive funds assets are likely to overtake active funds?on the stock market?by 2026, or earlier if bear market.
• The US?artificial intelligence market size?forecast?in 2026?is?$299.64?billion.
• The predicted CAGR for the?forecast?period of?2021-2026?is?35.5%.

Sources:?PR Newswire ?(2021),?GlobeNewsWire ?(2021)

AI PREDICTIONS — by 2027

• The?forecasted?AI annual growth rate between 2020 and?2027?is?33.2%?(Fortune Business Insights, 2021).?
• The?global AI chip market revenue?is?predicted?to reach?$83.25 billion?by 2027.
• AI experts predict?the future:?Truck drivers out of jobs?by 2027?(ZDNet, 2017).

AI PREDICTIONS — by 2028

• European businesses predict?AI will generate more revenue than human workers?by 2028?(Citrix, 2020).

?AI PREDICTIONS — by 2029

• As predicted by?Ray Kurzweil?(Inventor and Futurist),?by 2029,?search engines will understand the meaning of a search inquiry?rather than just digesting keywords. Worth noting that in the 1990s, Ray Kurzweil, shared his optimistic predictions.?Out of the 147 predictions?Kurzweil made, 87% were correct?to the year?(Wikipedia, 2021).?
• As predicted by Ray Kurzweil,?the turning test?(machines can think at human levels)?will be passed in 2029?(Wikipedia, 2021).?

AI PREDICTIONS — by 2030

• Intelligent agents and robots could replace as much as 30% of the world’s current human labour?by 2030. Depending upon various adoption scenarios,?automation will?displace between 400 and 800 million jobs, requiring as many as?375 million people to switch job categories entirely?(McKinsey & Company , 2017).
• Dr Ian Pearson?(futurist with an 85% accuracy record)?predicts?that people could start?using robots to do work around their house and provide companionship?starting?in 2030?(Business Insider, 2016).
• The future of hardware is AI. Quantum computing extensions will be commonplace?by 2030?(Athena GT, 2021).
• The?global artificial intelligence market forecast?that artificial intelligence technology could?contribute?$15.7?trillion of revenue?by 2030?(PwC , 2017).
• By 2030, AI will allow for?earlier detection and diagnosis of some of our leading causes of disease, and we will see?greater use of at-home health monitoring devices?(University of Queensland Research Hub, 2021).?
• The?greatest economic gains?from AI will be in?China (26% boost?to GDP?in 2030) and?North America (14.5% boost), equivalent to a total of?$10.7 trillion?and accounting for almost?70% of the global economic impact?(PwC , 2017).
• By 2030,?China?will account for?26.1% of the global AI market share?(GlobeNewswire , 2021;?Statista , 2020).
• 84%?of global organizations?believe that these new [AI-enabled] technologies will give them a?competitive edge?(IDC , 2021;?Statista , 2020)
• As many as?20 million manufacturing jobs will be lost?to robots?by 2030?(Oxford Economics, 2019).?
• It’s forecasted that there will be a total?workforce reduction of 16% in the US?by 2030?due to arising AI technology.?
• According to Dr Ian Pearson?(futurist?—?with an 85% accuracy record)?Space trips?designed to?send people to Mars?could start taking place?in 2030?(Business Insider, 2016).
• As?predicted?by?Ray Kurzweil,?AI will achieve human-level intelligence?by 2030?(Wikipedia, 2021).?
• According to statements by?Bill Gates?(American business magnate, software developer, investor, author and philanthropist - co-founder of Microsoft),?in 2030?most of the energy that will supply the world will come from clean sources.?Either wind or solar, according to Gates,?in 2030?the world will be quite different as far as?power generation?is concerned (Gates, 1999).?
• Elon Musk plans to launch the following?by 2030 (and possibly beyond)?the Hyperloop ?-?proposed high-speed mass transportation system for both passenger and freight transport?-?which Musk decided would be something either Tesla or SpaceX would be more involved with. Musk is hoping a?Hyperloop system?could be used in the?underground tunnels?his?Boring Company ?is developing. Another project that’s currently in its earliest stages of development is the?Neuralink,?Musk’s attempts to merge the human brain with AI ?(Futurism, 2017).

Peter Diamandis?(Entrepreneur and Futurologist, Founder and Executive Chairman of the XPRIZE Foundation)?has made the following?twenty?(20) AI metatrends predictions for the next decade (by 2030)?-?source:?Diamandis?(2020).

(1) Continued increase in global abundance:?The number of individuals in extreme poverty continues to drop, as the middle-income population continues to rise. This metatrend is?driven by the convergence?of?high-bandwidth and low-cost communication,?ubiquitous AI?on the cloud, growing access to?AI-aided education?and?AI-driven healthcare. Everyday goods and services (finance, insurance, education and entertainment) are being digitized and becoming fully demonetized, available to the rising billion on mobile devices.

(2) Global gigabit connectivity will connect everyone and everything, everywhere, at ultra-low cost:?The deployment of both licensed and unlicensed 5G, plus the launch of a multitude of global satellite networks (OneWeb, Starlink, etc.), allow for ubiquitous, low-cost communications for everyone, everywhere–– not to mention the connection of?trillions?of devices. And today’s skyrocketing connectivity is bringing online an addition 3 billion individuals, driving tens of trillions of dollars into the global economy.?This metatrend is?driven by the convergence of:?low-cost space launches, hardware advancements, 5G networks,?artificial intelligence, materials science and surging computing power.

(3) The average human healthspan will increase by 10+ years:?A dozen game-changing biotech and pharmaceutical solutions (currently in Phase 1, 2, or 3 clinical trials) will reach consumers this decade, adding an additional decade to the human healthspan. And as machine learning continues to mature,?AI is set to unleash countless new drug candidates, ready for clinical trials.?This metatrend is?driven by the convergence of: genome sequencing, CRISPR technologies,?AI, quantum computing and cellular medicine.

(4) An age of capital abundance will see increasing access to capital everywhere:?humanity hit all-time highs in the global flow of seed capital, venture capital and sovereign wealth fund investments. While this trend will witness some ups and downs in the wake of future recessions, it is expected to continue its overall upward trajectory. Already, $300 billion in crowdfunding is anticipated by 2025, democratizing capital access for entrepreneurs worldwide. This metatrend is?driven by the convergence of:?global connectivity, dematerialization, demonetization and democratization.

(5)?Augmented Reality and the?Spatial Web ?will achieve ubiquitous deployment:?The combination of Augmented Reality (yielding Web 3.0, or the Spatial Web) and 5G networks (offering 100Mb/s - 10Gb/s connection speeds) will transform how we live our everyday lives, impacting every industry from retail and advertising, to education and entertainment. Consumers will play, learn and shop throughout the day in a newly?intelligent,?virtually overlaid world. This metatrend will be?driven by the convergence of: hardware advancements, 5G networks,?artificial intelligence, materials science and surging computing power.

(6) Everything is smart, embedded with intelligence:?The price of specialized?machine learning chips?is dropping rapidly with a rise in global demand. Combined with the explosion of low-cost microscopic sensors and the deployment of high-bandwidth networks, we’re heading into a decade wherein?every device becomes intelligent.?Your child’s toy remembers her face and name. Your kids’ drone safely and diligently follows and videos all the children at the birthday party. Appliances respond to voice commands and anticipate your needs.

(7) AI will achieve human-level intelligence:?As predicted by technologist and futurist Ray Kurzweil, artificial intelligence will reach human-level performance this decade (by 2030).?AI algorithms?and?machine learning tools?will be increasingly made?open source, available on the cloud, allowing any individual with an internet connection to supplement their cognitive ability, augment their problem-solving capacity, and build new ventures at a fraction of the current cost. This metatrend will be?driven by the convergence of: global high-bandwidth connectivity,?neural networks?and cloud computing.

(8) AI-Human Collaboration will skyrocket across all professions:?The rise of “AI as a Service”?(AIaaS)?platforms will enable?humans to partner with AI in every aspect of their work, at every level, in every industry. AIs will become entrenched in everyday business operations, serving as cognitive collaborators to employees — supporting creative tasks, generating new ideas, and tackling previously unattainable innovations. In some fields,?partnership with AI?will even become a requirement.

(9) Most individuals adapt a?JARVIS-like “software shell” to improve their quality of life:?As services like Alexa, Google Home and Apple Homepod expand in functionality, such services will eventually travel beyond the home and become your cognitive prosthetic 24/7. With access to such data, these?AI-enabled software shells?will learn your preferences, anticipate your needs and behaviour, shop for you, monitor your health, and help you problem-solve in support of your mid- and long-term goals.

(10) Globally abundant, cheap renewable energy:?Continued advancements in solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, nuclear and localized grids will drive humanity towards cheap, abundant and ubiquitous renewable energy. The price per kilowatt-hour will drop below?1 cent per kilowatt-hour?for renewables, just as storage drops below a mere 3 cents per kilowatt-hour, resulting in the majority displacement of fossil fuels globally. And as the world’s poorest countries are also the world’s sunniest, the democratization of both new and traditional storage technologies will grant energy abundance to those already bathed in sunlight.

(11) The insurance industry transforms from “recovery after risk” to “prevention of risk":?Today, fire insurance pays you?after?your house burns down; life insurance pays your next-of-kin?after?you die; and health insurance (which is really sick insurance) pays only?after?you get sick. This next decade, a new generation of insurance providers will leverage?the convergence of?machine learning, ubiquitous sensors, low-cost genome sequencing and robotics to detect risk,?prevent?disaster, and guarantee safety before any costs are incurred.

(12) Autonomous vehicles and flying cars will redefine human travel (soon to be far faster and cheaper):?Fully autonomous vehicles, car-as-a-service fleets and aerial ride-sharing (flying cars) will be fully operational in most major metropolitan cities in the coming decade. Where you live and work, and how you spend your time, will all be fundamentally reshaped by this future of human travel. Your kids and elderly parents will never drive. This metatrend will be?driven by the convergence of: machine learning, sensors, materials science, battery storage improvements, and ubiquitous gigabit connections.

(13) On-demand production and on-demand delivery will birth an “instant economy of things":?Urban dwellers will learn to expect “instant fulfillment” of their retail orders as drone and robotic last-mile delivery services carry products from local supply depots directly to your doorstep. Further riding the deployment of regional on-demand digital manufacturing (3D printing farms), individualized products can be obtained within hours, anywhere, anytime. This metatrend is?driven by the convergence of:?networks, 3D printing,?robotics?and?artificial intelligence.

(14) Ability to sense and know anything, anytime, anywhere:?We’re rapidly approaching the era wherein 100 billion sensors (the Internet of Everything) is monitoring and sensing (imaging, listening, measuring) every facet of our environments, all the time. This metatrend is?driven by the convergence of:?terrestrial, atmospheric and space-based sensors, vast data networks and?machine learning.?In this future, it’s not “what you know,” but rather “the quality of the questions you ask” that will be most important.

(15) Disruption of advertising:?As AI becomes increasingly embedded in everyday life, your custom?AI will soon understand what you want better than you do.?In turn, we will begin to both trust and rely upon our AIs to make most of our buying decisions, turning over shopping to?AI-enabled personal assistants. Your AI might make purchases based upon your past desires, current shortages, conversations you’ve allowed your AI to listen to, or by tracking where your pupils focus on a virtual interface (ie. what catches your attention). As a result, the advertising industry—which normally competes for?your?attention (whether at the Superbowl or through search engines)—will have a hard time influencing your AI. This metatrend is?driven by the convergence of: machine learning,?sensors, augmented reality and 5G/networks.

(16) Cellular agriculture moves from the lab into inner cities, providing high-quality protein that is cheaper and healthier:?This next decade will witness the birth of the most ethical, nutritious and environmentally sustainable protein production system devised by humankind. Stem cell-based ‘cellular agriculture’ will allow the production of beef, chicken and fish?anywhere, on-demand, with far higher nutritional content, and a vastly lower environmental footprint than traditional livestock options. This metatrend is?enabled by the convergence of:?biotechnology, materials science,?machine learning?and AgTech.

(17) High-bandwidth Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) will come online for public use:?Technologist and futurist Ray Kurzweil has predicted that in the mid-2030s, we will begin connecting the human neocortex to the cloud. This next decade will see tremendous progress in that direction, first serving those with spinal cord injuries, whereby patients will regain both sensory capacity and motor control. Yet beyond assisting those with motor function loss, several BCI pioneers are now attempting to supplement their baseline cognitive abilities, a pursuit with the potential to increase their sensorium, memory and even?. This meta-trend is?fueled by the convergence of:?materials science,?machine learning?and robotics.

(18) High-resolution VR?will transform both retail and real estate shopping:?High-resolution, lightweight virtual reality headsets will allow individuals at home to shop for everything from clothing to real estate from the convenience of their living room. Need a new outfit? Your?AI?knows your detailed body measurements and can whip up a fashion show featuring your avatar wearing the latest 20 designs on a runway. Want to see how your furniture might look inside a house you’re viewing online? No problem! This metatrend is?enabled by the convergence of:?VR,?machine learning?and high-bandwidth networks.

(19) Increased focus on sustainability and the environment:?An increase in global environmental awareness and concern over global warming will drive companies to invest in sustainability, both from a necessity standpoint and for marketing purposes. Breakthroughs in materials science,?enabled by AI, will allow companies to drive tremendous reductions in waste and environmental contamination. One company’s waste will become another company’s profit center. This metatrend is?enabled by the convergence of:?materials science,?artificial intelligence?and broadband networks.

(20) CRISPR and gene therapies will minimize disease:?A vast range of infectious diseases, ranging from AIDS to Ebola, are now curable. In addition, gene-editing technologies continue to advance in precision and ease of use, allowing families to treat and ultimately?cure?hundreds of inheritable genetic diseases. This metatrend is?driven by the convergence of:?various biotechnologies (CRISPR, Gene Therapy), genome sequencing, and?artificial intelligence.

AI PREDICTIONS — by 2035

• AI technologies are?projected?to?boost corporate profitability?in 16 industries across 12 economies?by an average of 38%?by 2035?(Accenture, 2017).
• Citrix?(2020) report predicts that by 2035,?investment in AI will be the biggest driver of growth for their organization.
• Artificial intelligence has the potential to?boost employee productivity by?40%?in 2035?(CNBC , 2016).
• By 2035, artificial intelligence technology?will add?$1 billion?to the banking industry?(Accenture, 2017).
• IEEE?(2020)?noted ?that one?forecast?has?autonomous cars handling 70% of all miles driven?by 2035.
• Vinod Khosla ?(a legendary Silicon Valley investor) argues that?robots will replace doctors?by 2035?and there is some evidence that may justify his statement?(Towards Data Science, 2019).
• How AI will impact trust ethics and governance?by 2035?-?organisations will be required to provide transparent reports on how they govern and assure their ethical use of AI and data, and will be held responsible for?trust breaches?(University of Queensland Research Hub, 2021).

AI PREDICTIONS — by 2040

• Dr Ian Pearson predicts?that?people could control their home settings using artificial intelligence?by 2040.?AI will be built into buildings?themselves, so you can talk to the building and ask for adjustments in temperature or lighting. "Artificial intelligence will be a big?home servant"?(Business Insider, 2016).
• AI will make it possible for nearly all businesses to run a?carbon-neutral enterprise?from 2030?to 2040?(University of Queensland Research Hub, 2021).

AI PREDICTIONS — by 2045

• Dr Ian Pearson?(futurist with an 85% accuracy record)?predicts?that we?could live in a Matrix-like virtual world?by 2045?(Business Insider, 2016).?"Around 2045, 2050, you could?link people's brains to the computers?so much that they believe they’re living in a virtual world".
• Dr Ian Pearson?predicts?people could also become Cyborgs?by 2045.?"If we can link people's brains to computers by 2045, then we could use similar technology to turn people into?part-machine, part-human"?(Business Insider, 2016).
• Ray Kurzweil’s predictions?founded what’s called ‘the transhumanist movement’. According to Kurzweil,?2045?will ring in the?singularity.?Computing power will be so great that it will be impossible for ordinary humans (not augmented by technology) to keep up, and augmentation will be so common that?the line between human and machine will be blurred.

AI PREDICTIONS — by 2050

By 2050, AI technology?will read emotions to personalize each customer experience, and everyday interactions will be?a mix of humans, AI-enabled machines and hybrids?(University of Queensland Research Hub, 2021).

The?University of Southern California (USC)?has made the following?predictions?on?5 ways that artificial intelligence will change the world?by 2050:

1. ENTERTAINMENT

USC?(2017)?predicts?that in the future?by 2050, you could sit on the couch and?order up a custom movie?featuring?virtual actors?of your choice. Meanwhile, film studios may have a future without flops: Sophisticated?predictive programs?will analyze a film script’s storyline and forecast its box office potential.

2. MEDICINE

USC?(2017)?predicts?that?by 2050?medicine will be?tailored to your exact genome.?AI algorithms will enable doctors and hospitals to better analyze data and?customize healthcare to the genes, environment and lifestyle of each patient.?From diagnosing brain tumors to deciding which cancer treatment will work best for an individual,?AI will drive the personalized medicine revolution.

3. CYBERSECURITY

There were about?707 million cybersecurity breaches in 2015, and?554 million in the first half of 2016?alone. Companies are struggling to stay one step ahead of hackers. USC (2017) experts say the?self-learning?and?automation capabilities enabled by AI can protect data more systematically and affordably, keeping people safer from terrorism or even smaller-scale identity theft.

4. VITAL TASKS

AI assistants?will help older people stay independent?and live in their own homes longer. AI tools will keep nutritious food available, safely reach objects on high shelves, and monitor movement in a senior’s home. The tools could mow lawns, keep windows washed and even help with bathing and hygiene. But the?AI-assisted work?may be even more critical in dangerous fields like mining, firefighting, clearing mines and handling radioactive materials.

5. TRANSPORTATION

The place where AI may have the biggest impact in the near future is?self-driving cars.? Thanks to Google, autonomous cars are already here, but watch for them to be?ubiquitous?by 2030. Driver-less trains already rule the rails in European cities and Boeing is building an autonomous jetliner (pilots are still required to put info into the system).

AI PREDICTIONS?—?100 years from now

Ready to take a quantum leap??The?Samsung SmartThings?(2016) Living Report?predicts how homes and AI-enabled technology will look and be like in 100 years. Perhaps most striking is where they will be: underwater and underground. The study paints a vivid picture of our?future lives - powered by AI; suggesting the way we?live,?work?and?play?will change beyond all recognition over the course of the next century. Many of the predictions were influenced by?environmental conditions, with growing populations?leading to the development of structures?that are better able to cope with?space constraints?and?diminishing resources.

As city space?becomes more squeezed, we will?burrow deeper?and?build higher?with the creation of:

• Superskyscrapers
• Carbon nanotubes?and?diamond Nanothreads?will help us create towering?megastructures?that will dwarf today’s skyscrapers.
• Earthscrapers?— just as we build up we will also?dig down?— huge structures will?tunnel 25 storeys' deep, or more.
• Underwater Cities?— are likely to become a reality — using the water itself to create?breathable atmospheres?and generating hydrogen fuel through the process.
• Personal Flying Drones replacing cars?—?some of us will be travelling sky-ways with our own personal flying drones, some strong enough to carry entire homes around the world for holidays.
• Colonize Space?—?first the moon, then Mars?and then far beyond into the?galaxy.

As?AI-enabled technology develops in the next century, we will see:

• 3D Printing of houses and furniture?— we will be able to print exact replicas of large scale structures like houses out of local, recyclable materials so that we really can have all the comforts of home while we are away.
• Flexible, smart walls and 3D printed Michelin starred meals?— smart walls will mean you won’t need to decorate your home —?LED room surfaces?will adapt to suit your mood. When it comes to entertaining, there will be no more botched recipes or pizza deliveries — instead we will be?downloading dishes?from famous chefs that we will tailor to our personal needs. We will be able to 3D-print a banquet or a favourite cake in minutes.
• Virtual Meetings with Holograms?— our working lives will be transformed with the use of holograms?which will allow us to attend meetings virtually, without leaving the comfort our homes.
• Stepping into home Medipods?— will confirm if you really are ill, providing a?digital diagnosis?and supplying medicine or a?remote surgeon?if needed.

Source: Samsung SmartThings (2016)

TIMELAPSE OF FUTURE TECHNOLOGY: 2022 - 4000+

Ready to take another quantum leap? Let's take a closer look at what future technology powered by AI will be like beyond the next 30, 50 to 100 years and towards Year 4000?—?the future of AI.

Source: Venture City (2020)

Quotes about the future from:?Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen Hawking, Albert Einstein?and?Elon Musk. Additional footage sources:?NASA, SpaceX.

Key Takeaways for Business and Industry

For a snapshot on AI now and how we got here, along with the key?impacts,?risks?and?value?for business and industry — read the?first ?and?second ?articles in this 3-part series.

AI-Enabled Future

• AI will change the nature of work, with the only question being?how rapidly?and?how profoundly?automation will alter the workplace.
• Artificial intelligence is already impacting the future of?virtually every business, every industry?and?every human being.
• AI technology is progressing quickly and leading businesses are?tuning their AI strategy?to?change how they engage with customers.
• Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems that AI projects have accelerated and advanced because of it.
• The new workforce and the always-on organization?— the adoption of AI will necessarily and unavoidably?change the nature of work.?A key change that AI brings is the “always-on organization”. With the use of conversational agents and autonomous bots,?there’s very little reason for businesses to close.?In the AI-enabled future,?businesses simply don’t have hours of operation.?They’re always in operation.?
• AI is making organizations much more responsive to their customer’s needs and desires.
• AI is making mass-customization possible?for?many different industries?by leveraging the power of?machine learning-enabled hyperpersonalization ?to tailor their offerings and build solutions customized for each individual customer, patient, client, or citizen.?
• The future is Autonomous -?AI is empowering the ability for autonomous operation of all types.?The?combination?of computer vision, machine learning, natural language processing, predictive analytics?and the world of?intelligent sensors?and?devices?means that we will be awash in?autonomous systems of all sorts pervasive in our daily lives.
• All of the AI predictions provide food for thought.?If Ray Kurzweil’s predictions come true,?businesses will have to?adapt to new ideas more rapidly than ever.
• AI-Human Collaboration will skyrocket across all professions:?The rise of “AI as a Service” (AIaaS) platforms will enable?humans to partner with AI in every aspect of their work, at every level, in every industry.
• By 2025,?20% of revenue growth?will be from ‘white space’ offerings?that?combine digital services?[AI-enabled] from previously unlinked industries, and one-fifth of partners are from previously unlinked industries” (IDC, 2021).
• The companies that?learn, adapt?and?mobilize quickly will be front-runners,?better equipped to reach deployment, and ultimately,?will attain profitability?and?realize some of the value of AI.
• The one thing that is certain is that?it’s coming and we’re already heading in that direction.?Companies are developing and investing in these technologies now.
• The bottom line is this:?Businesses that understand how to harness AI can surge ahead. Those that neglect it will fall behind.?

Key Takeaways for Society and Humanity

For a snapshot on AI now and how we got here, along with the key?impacts,?risks?and?value?for society and humanity — read the?first ?and?second ?articles in this 3-part series.

AI-Enabled Future

• AI is?already impacting our lives?and will continue to impact our lives more significantly in future:?the way we work, the way we live, the way we experience the world?and our interactions with each other, and the relationship we have with data.?
• The future will be?AI-enabled?and?less patient.
• The future is AI-powered,?AI-enabled?and it’s up to us to?figure out what that means for our daily lives, for society and humanity.
• In reality,?AI is already at work all around us, impacting everything from our search results, to our online dating prospects, to the way we shop.?
• Once the genie is out of the bottle,?there is no going back.?AI is definitely?here to stay, whether we like it or not.?
• Enhancing the Human Experience?- in addition to our work lives, AI will soon be a part of our?overall human experience.?We will come to use and sometimes?rely on AI systems?to enhance?our daily interactions with each other, expand our creativity, and give us ways to express ourselves that we cannot otherwise do today. AI systems are also having a?great influence?on?how we communicate and socialize with each other.
• AI?and?ML?will be critical tools in?identifying and predicting threats in cybersecurity. AI will also be a crucial asset for security in the world of finance, given that it can process?large amounts of data ?to predict and catch instances of fraud.?
• At the societal level, a?massive explosion of data and information?like we are experiencing should lead to an equal or greater explosion in science, technology and culture.?AI will be at the center of this transformation,?not as decision making robots — but rather as a purveyor of facts, knowledge and if done right — unbiased truth. However, in our current data quagmire?real damage is being done to the fabric of our society?by our?inability to transform information into knowledge?before?it can be disseminated as?misinformation?and?propaganda. From politics to anti-science movements it is amplifying voices that not only lack substance, but?do real harm.?The success of AI, ML and Big Data has never been more important. unbiased truth.
• Second-order consequences of widespread AI will have?massive societal impacts, "to the point of making us unsure if and when we can trust our own eyes"?(Gartner, 2021).
• Changing our relationship with data (Pervasive Knowledge)?— through AI, we’re moving beyond the idea of pervasive computing to pervasive knowledge. Pervasive knowledge is the idea that not only are we always going to be connected to the worldwide information grid, but?all systems will have constant knowledge of what we are doing and how we’re doing it.?Pervasive knowledge further enabled by AI and made tangible?will impact everything from the way we shop to the way we live.?
• Too many, pervasive knowledge means pervasive surveillance powered by AI. We do not want systems to know where we are and what we are doing.?The AI-enabled future?will be a world where there is more access to all types of information and we are going to demand that those who have access to it?use it smartly and use it for our benefit.?This is going to mean that we're asking more of the people who have custody of this knowledge.?The future will be AI-enabled and less patient.
• AI Potential Future Value for Society?— whilst AI may be misused,?we must not overlook?the many ways that?AI can be used for Good. One of the many benefits of using artificial intelligence is to help us view societal problems from a different perspective. AI provides a valuable tool to?augment human efforts to come up with solutions to vexing and complex problems. Let’s broaden our scope,?tone down the hype?and recognize the serious challenges ahead for organisations, governments, society and humanity. One thing is for sure, there is still a?long journey ahead of us with AI?and it is important that we continue to have these discussions and debates now,?not just to avoid?the potential pitfalls and threats, but to?construct a future where AI provides value to humanity and improves the world for all of us.
• Artificial Intelligence?is going to change the world more than anything in the history of mankind.
• The single most critical driver of impacts, risks and value from AI is not algorithms, nor technology —?it is the human in the equation.

Lasting Thoughts...

“We’re at beginning of a golden age of AI. Recent advancements have already led to invention that previously lived in the realm of science fiction?—?and?we have scratched the surface of what’s possible”

–?Jeff Bezos

Amazon Founder and Executive Chairman

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"The?real opportunity?isn’t going to be AI versus humans;?it’s going to be?AI with humans"

- Peter Diamandis

Entrepreneur and Futurologist Founder and Executive Chairman of the XPRIZE Foundation

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“AI will be the best or worst thing ever for humanity”

- Elon Musk

billionaire entrepreneur, CEO and Founder of SpaceX

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"History will be our judge"

- Robert Piconi

CEO of?Energy Vault

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What's your view about the future of Artificial Intelligence? Leave your comments - click below, join the discussion.

Sources:

Accenture (2018) - www.accenture.com/au-en/insights/technology/human-plus-machine

Accenture (2017) - www.accenture.com/_acnmedia/Accenture/next-gen-5/insight-ai-industry-growth/pdf/Accenture-AI-Industry-Growth-Industry-Report.pdf?la=en

AI Magazine (2021) - aimagazine.com/top10/top-10-ai-technologies-2021

Analytics Insight (2021) - www.analyticsinsight.net/80-of-companies-will-adopt-intelligent-automation-by-2025/

Athena GT (2021) - blog.athenagt.com/artificial-intelligence-in-2030-10-predictions-by-athena/

Autome.me (2021) - autome.me/4-ai-predictions-and-warnings-by-elon-musk/

Bloomberg (2021)?- www.bloomberg.com/professional/blog/passive-likely-overtakes-active-by-2026-earlier-if-bear-market/

Business Insider (2016) - www.businessinsider.com/ian-pearson-predictions-about-the-world-in-2050-2016-7?r=AU&IR=T

Citrix (2020) - www.citrix.com/content/dam/citrix/en_us/documents/analyst-report/work-2035.pdf

CNBC (2016) - www.cnbc.com/2016/09/29/artificial-intelligence-will-boost-us-productivity-says-report.html

?Cognilytica?(2018) - www.cognilytica.com/2018/03/15/the-ai-enabled-future/

Deloitte (2020) - www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/at/Documents/technology-media-telecommunications/at-tmt-predictions-2020.pdf

Diamandis, Peter (2020) - www.diamandis.com/blog/20-metatrends-2020s

Forrester (2016) - go.forrester.com/press-newsroom/robots-ai-will-replace-7-of-us-jobs-by-2025/

Fortune Business Insights (2021) - www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/artificial-intelligence-market-100114

Frost and Sullivan (2019) - www.frost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/SmartCities.pdf

Futurism (2017) - futurism.com/heres-list-everything-elon-musk-2030

Gartner (2021) - blogs.gartner.com/andrew_white/2021/01/12/our-top-data-and-analytics-predicts-for-2021/