5 reasons why artificial intelligence is really going to change our world

Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the ability of machines to interpret data and act intelligently, meaning they can make decisions and perform tasks based on the data available – just like a human does.

Chances are you’ve read a lot about AI in recent years, especially how it’s going to save the world and/or end civilization as we know it. It’s certainly true that AI attracts a lot of hype and, shall we say, colorful predictions. But, contrary to some technology trends, much of the hype surrounding AI is fully justified. It really is a transformative technology – one that will drastically change our lives in very real ways.

Not quite convinced? Here are five reasons why I believe artificial intelligence is going to change the world in 2022 and beyond.

1. AI is everywhere

Ever asked Alexa for the weather report, or walked through a public place that uses facial recognition technology, or paid for something with your credit card, or bought a product recommended to you by Amazon, or browsed potential love matches on a dating app? Of course you have. Most of us have done one or all of these things, probably in the past week. Probably in the last 24 hours.

And, you guessed it, all these everyday processes are supported by AI and data. AI allows your credit card company to determine in an instant that your latest transaction fits your spending habits and isn’t fraudulent. For example, Mastercard uses AI algorithms to assess the 75 billion transactions processed each year on its network. So to put it bluntly, AI is already deeply entrenched in your everyday life, and it’s not going anywhere.

2. AI isn’t just infiltrating everyday life, it’s going to transform entire industries

The impact of AI is already being felt in a wide range of industries, from banking and retail to agriculture and manufacturing. In healthcare, AI is being used to identify (and in some cases even predict) diseases so that healthcare providers and their patients can make better decisions about treatments and lifestyle.

AI systems can even outperform human experts when it comes to identifying diseases; in January 2022, clinical trials of AI software developed by Google Health confirmed that the software was better at detecting signs of breast cancer in mammograms than radiologists. The system also reported fewer “false positive” results than the experts.

3. AI will make us more human, not less

As machines become more intelligent, they can perform more and more tasks, leading to increasing automation in most industries. With this rise in automation come justified concerns about the impact on human jobs. But while there’s no doubt that automation will lead to the relocation of many jobs, I believe it will also create new jobs — jobs that value our unique human capabilities such as creativity and empathy.

AI will also make our working lives better. Journalism is an industry that is undergoing an AI revolution, and there are many AI tools that help journalists identify and write stories. For example, Forbes uses an AI-powered content management system called Bertie to identify real-time trending topics, suggest headline improvements, and identify relevant images. This reduces some of the behind-the-scenes work for human journalists, allowing them to focus on telling the story.

4. AI is becoming more affordable for the masses

In the past, you needed expensive technology and a huge team of in-house data scientists to work with AI. That is no longer the case. Like many other technology solutions, AI is now readily available on an as-a-service basis – with a rapidly growing offering of turnkey service solutions for businesses of all sizes.

In 2021, for example, Amazon launched ‘Personalize’, an AI-based service that helps businesses provide customer recommendations and tailor-made search results. Incredibly, Amazon says no AI experience is needed to train and deploy the technology.

5. AI is driving other technology trends

Finally, as if we needed any more proof that AI is really going to change the world, let’s end with this simple fact: AI is the foundation on which many other technological trends are built.

Essentially, this means that without AI we would not have achieved the amazing recent advances in areas such as virtual reality, chatbots, facial recognition, autonomous vehicles and robotics.

a (and just to name a few). Think of almost any recent transformative technology or scientific breakthrough, and somewhere along the way AI has played a role. For example, thanks to AI, researchers can now quickly read and sequence genes, and this knowledge can be used to determine which drug therapies are more effective for individual patients.

5 reasons why artificial intelligence is really going to change our world