WTF is AI: The AI ecosystem for Muggles

In my continuing mission to clarify the AI industry in terms that business people and MarCom people will understand, I shall attempt to 'bucket' the various generic entities that exist in the AI ecosystem currently.

I am not including the AI R&D or funding elements in this roundup, since I want to focus on the front end products/services that AI powers, rather than the AI 'electricity' itself. My article is intended to be a reference point for 'non-techies !'

AI agencies 

This is a term I have coined but which captures the essence of this first group. Major companies like Element AI and Stradigi AI in Montreal are good examples of multi faceted AI solutions companies with significant VC backing and who appear to be building out robust offers for multiple industries, able to deliver AI automation and improved customer/business experiences. 

I don't know but imagine that they have a mixture of in-house AI solutions as well as 3rd party tech solutions that they use, hence why I called them 'agencies.'

Management consultants:

Companies like Deloitte (Omnia AI is their AI division,) PWC and Accenture and others are also competing with the AI agencies in terms of overall AI powered business solutions.

In fact a global management consultant potentially has significant additional resources available in other areas such as access to global databases, global retail information & research, to really complete their overall solutions offer. But these solutions are more applicable for large businesses with signifcant revenues and budgets. 

There are smaller AI solutions and consultants, but since the industry is so young, there are few tried and tested experts yet in overall AI services. It is a pioneering industry that is learning and creating its path as it goes.

Specific AI product suppliers 

These are companies that do not have a wide range of AI solutions but focus on a small core of products, even if they may be suitable for many industries. For the most part, they will work directly with brands but may also provide specific AI solutions to AI agencies, management consultancies, ad, media and PR agencies.

A couple of examples include:

A Montreal based company able to gain better consumer insight and improve customer realtionships/experiences by scanning millions of pieces of textual data in multiple formats such as emails, forums, social, chats etc. This unstructured information is then ordered and grouped via incredibly detailed reporting for significant depth of insight, greater customer understanding and consequently better ROI.

A growing start up that takes CCTV footage such as shopping malls/stores/casinos, then analyzes the video footage anonymously and tracks consumer movement, dwell times, store visit frequency and much more. This can then be connected to store floor plans for heat mapping and identifying which area of the store generates highest ROI. Can even help with store employees identifying customer interaction types and lengths that generate best store ROI.

There are hundreds of start ups sprouting up globally with New AI solutions that will transform industries such as providers of chatbots, virtual advisers, products that learn, predict and automate huge amounts of data and provide solutions to multiple industries.

However, many start ups are not yet known because they have prioritized AI product development over their marketing. Many hidden gems in this category will become more mainstream when they amplify their products with marketing.

Financial services is an industry being transformed in Europe, in the same way the music industry was, and will be in North America when Open banking legislation comes into being - it is currently being considered by the Canadian government, following Europe's 2018 approval ; many new FinTech products will threaten this industry, so big banks had better be ready!

Ad and media agencies :

Although many ad and media agencies will already likely be using AI technology for existing products such as data management platforms, Facebook/Google algorithms and programmatic buys etc, some are now trying to get into the AI market by helping AI companies/agencies with their branding /advertising/ media/ image and message amplification. 

They are also looking to add AI products and services to their 'toolbox' and are constantly on the lookout for AI products they can commercialize and sell to brands. 

Many are moving into the 'business solutions ' area from simply MarCom/media/creativity and clearly AI will open up new opportunities with AI agencies and AI product suppliers.

AI Human resources :

This is one area in its infancy - I know from first hand as someone transitioning from the agency marketing world to the AI marketing world, AI MarCom HR headhunters are few and far between. 

There are many tech headhunters looking for typical AI roles such as data scientists, coders etc but almost no independents equipped to find MarCom people, suitable for AI industry which requires a specific but broad skillset. Huge opportunity here for entrepreneurs in HR in my humble opinion.

Conclusion

AI is in its infancy as an industry and 'non AI' people are trying to understand what it is, how it can improve their business, what everyone does in AI and who to go to get concrete solutions.

So I will finish with the biggest challenge for AI industry:

'People don't know, what they don't know.'

This has never been truer for the AI industry trying to resonate with non-techy business decision makers.

So spell out the solutions clearly to the decision makers because most have no clue how their industries will be transformed for the better by AI (the yellow segment of the adjoining pie.)

After all, this is what I'm trying to do here :)