With the start of the new year most of us look forward. What might come in the next 12 months? From a business intelligence standpoint, the future is bright! In the coming weeks, we will explore some of the trends for business intelligence in 2021.
Artificial Intelligence in 2021
Certainly AI is not new, however it is rapidly evolving and organizations must be ready to embrace those changes. With the “internet of things” constantly growing and collecting data, companies and analysts have more information available than ever before. “Internet of things” refers to physical objects with technology, such as sensors and software, giving them the ability to share data with a network of other objects and systems.
So many people access the internet daily in so many different ways. From computers and phones to robotic vacuum cleaners and refrigerators, countless bits and bytes of data are collected, sorted, and segmented through artificial intelligence. Your refrigerator can tell when you are out of milk and add it to a list on your phone. You can tell your watch to tell your vacuum to clean the living room. And, even better, your vacuum can let you know that it did that yesterday and suggest that it vacuum the dining room instead. I can’t imagine what my late grandmother, who was born in 1911 would have thought about that.
This collection of data by AI will continue to grow in 2021 and businesses will have a deep well to gather data from, allowing for greater guidance in decision making for all areas of business. And AI will be there to help with those decisions. Machine learning and AI will allow for decisions to be based upon data analysis without human involvements if necessary. Series of “what ifs” and “if then” simulations can be processed quickly and effectively. AI will make data ready for a business to evaluate at a moment’s notice.
Natural Language Processing in 2021
Closely related to Artificial Intelligence is Natural Language Processing (NLP). When we tell our phone to send a text to our boss you are utilizing the speech recognition aspect of NLP. You use your natural speech pattern to tell your phone to do so. This is possible due to semantic search. And when your phone responds in his or her snarky way, natural language generation is being utilized.
While these all seem to be simple time savers for consumers, they provide masses of data to businesses and organizations. This data can be used to help advance machine learning. The more the machine learns of language, the more advance the responses and actions will become. When these functions of NLP are combined with machine learning, analysts no longer need to comb through data and consumers no longer need to use formal or awkward phrasing in queries.
As artificial intelligence progresses so will the abilities of it based on natural language processing. We are not yet to the point that machines interpret language as well as humans. There’s so much more than the words we say. We must consider the facial expressions and body language. NLP, when paired with visual AI, can lead to Natural Language Understanding. This would move AI into a new realm.