Artificial intelligence (AI) is impacting the future of virtually every industry and every human being on the planet. Artificial intelligence has been established as the main driver of emerging technologies such as big data, robotics, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Moving into 2021, Artificial Intelligence will continue to act as a main technological innovator for the foreseeable future.
For several reasons, the pandemic only sped up the adoption of AI in the enterprise. Here's what to watch in the year ahead with regard to AI talent, tools, and ethics, and other key issues.
Pre-pandemic, artificial intelligence was already poised for huge growth in 2020. Back in September 2019, IDC predicted that spending on AI technologies would grow more than two and a half times to $97.9 billion by 2023. Since then, COVID-19 has only increased the potential value of AI to the enterprise. According to McKinsey’s State of AI survey published in November 2020, half of respondents say their organizations have adopted AI in at least one function.
“As the grip of the pandemic continues to affect the ability of the enterprise to operate, AI in many guises will become increasingly important as businesses seek to understand their COVID- affected data sets and continue to automate day-to-day tasks,” says Wayne Butterfield, director of ISG Automation, a unit of global technology research and advisory firm ISG.
"AI in many guises will become increasingly important as businesses seek to understand their COVID-affected data sets and continue to automate."
AI trends 2021: What's happening in the enterprise
However, the focus of AI adoption will not be simply to improve the efficiency or effectiveness of operations. “There has been a visible shift towards leveraging AI to improve stakeholder experience owing to the pandemic,” says Alisha Mittal, practice director with management consultancy and research firm Everest Group.
The AI trends expected in 2021 that IT leaders should monitor include the following:
- AI talent will remain tight
- AI fuels self-directed IT
- AI structures unstructured data
- IT pushes AI at a larger scale
- More AI becomes explainable
- AIOps gets big
- Augmented processes enter the picture
- Voice- and language-driven intelligence takes off
- AI and cloud become symbiotic
- AI ethics and standards come into focus
