These days, staying up to date on cutting-edge technologies is critical to company relevancy. For example, recent advances in artificial intelligence and virtual reality have made major waves in the way some businesses operate. The company that knows about new tech earlier has a better chance of staying ahead of the curve and its competitors.
As groundbreaking advances are made in the realms of AI and VR, many are speculating on how these technologies will reshape both everyday living and the way businesses operate. We asked 14 members of Forbes Technology Council to highlight the ways they foresee AI and VR technologies changing the world.
1. Enhanced Health Care
Artificial intelligence will change how medicine is developed, how diseases are diagnosed, and how medicine is prescribed and applied. To continue to speed this transformation we need greater availability of data, balanced regulation and public education, at a minimum. - Mohamad Zahreddine, TrialAssure
2. Custom Home Builds
I think these technologies can help us move past tract homes and find ways to build homes in a more customized, affordable way based on personal budgets and situations — that also may help us solve the housing crisis. - Jon Bradshaw, Calendar
3. Better Training And Therapy
Virtual reality apps are already making great strides in the areas of training through more realistic simulations and therapy applications. If the promising results are any indicator, this will be an area to watch and a great example of tech directly improving our non-digital lives. - Matthew Wallace, Faction, Inc.
4. Revolutionized Education
Artificial intelligence and virtual reality combined will revolutionize education through immersive personalized learning. We’re already seeing this for specialized training, and over the next few decades, it will broaden to cover core K-18 and master’s level education. - Bret Piatt, Jungle Disk
5. More Accurate Predictive Modeling
Understanding why something has happened or will happen has been important in many disciplines. In the past, predictive modeling suffered from a lack of data and understanding of the dependencies of the data. With more information than ever being collected by companies, we can now apply AI techniques, specifically machine learning, and use a more holistic process to understand and predict events. - Chris Kirby, Retired
6. Improved Focus On High-Value Activities
I’m really interested in seeing how artificial intelligence technologies help improve human focus on high-value activities. In recruiting, for example, recruiters are already able to use AI to quickly find, evaluate and engage top prospects for open jobs — letting them spend their time convincing people to join their company instead of spending substantial time searching for them. - Xinwen Zhang, Hiretual
7. New Breakthroughs From Better Data Correlation
We are generating vast amounts of data on a daily basis. Yet most companies still spend considerable time hypothesizing what the data will tell them and then attempting to prove themselves right. AI finds correlations with data that we can never anticipate. These unexpected discoveries are already leading to significant breakthroughs in medicine, law, finance and security. - Kathy Keating, Apostrophe, Inc.
8. Customer Centricity
These technologies will help companies to understand their customers better and provide personalized products and services, as well as allow them to engage with the customers in their environment. - Thiru Sivasubramanian, SE2, LLC
9. Small-Scale Life Improvements
Artificial intelligence already drives self-driving cars, unlocks your phone and types for you. In the coming years, it will change the world in less visible ways by making sure rental cars are available even when there’s an eclipse, ordering inventory in advance or adjusting staffing automatically. This will reduce costs for companies — and thus for consumers — while improving lives in small ways. - Alexander Shartsis, Perfect Price
10. Data Analytics In Near-Real Time
Key AI techniques fall into the following areas: machine learning, computer vision, NLP robotics, deep learning and cognitive computing. The biggest impact is going to be the integration and convergence of AI, internet of things and distributed ledgers, where the output of intelligence gleaned from Big Data is delivered to the members of the distributed network in near-real time. - Rahul Sharma, HSBlox
11. Augmented Intelligence
Artificial intelligence and virtual reality will combine to provide augmented intelligence, helping humans think better. There are two problems being solved here. First, offloading more and more cognitive tasks to machines frees humans to focus on higher and higher value thinking. Second, improving the interface between humans and machines allows for better and faster communication. - Chris Grundemann, Myriad Supply
12. Creation Of The Chief AI Officer Role
Companies did not have a CTO or CIO before information technology became what it has become today. AI is going to do the same thing. In the future, every company will have a Chief AI Officer, and around half a workforce of a typical company will be algorithms. I call algorithms a workforce and not assets because like employees they will need to be trained, improved and made efficient over time. - Amit Jnagal, Infrrd
13. Better Data-Driven Decisions Via Natural Language Generation
Organizations collect massive amounts of data but often fail to gain clear insight. Natural language generation, a subset of AI, is the solution to definitively communicate the current problem using data so companies can make data-centric, strategic next steps. When a company has full understanding, it gains the ability to make better data-driven decisions. It gains the power to change the world. - Marc Zionts, Automated Insights
14. Focused ‘Smart’ Applications
Don’t expect that AI will suddenly and fundamentally change your world. Instead, smaller, highly focused “applications” will emerge incrementally. Your house will get smarter about when and how it consumes electricity. You’ll get alerted that grandma’s daily behavior has changed in a way that may merit a doctor’s visit. More spam emails and phone calls will get blocked before they reach you. - Kent Dickson, Yonomi
