AI becomes even more useful in 2021

It seemed like artificial intelligence (AI) was everywhere before, but think of it as becoming even more pervasive (if that's possible).

"AI will become more ubiquitous, accurate and accessible for the masses – this is already starting to happen and will accelerate in 2021. AI will come in to fill more gaps for simpler tasks. For example, grocery stores could use AI-enabled cameras that periodically check to see if a shelf is empty and if so, alerts a clerk to restock with a notification. In a post-COVID world, we’ll likely see more businesses adopting AI to create contactless experiences that reduce unnecessary face-to-face interaction," noted Raj Hazra, Micron Senior VP of Emerging Products & Corporate Strategy.

“Markets across Asia are increasingly adopting AI into their data management strategies and the trend will continue well into 2021 and beyond. We are fast approaching a world in which every organisation uses AI, regardless of industry. In a telling indication that this shift is already in full swing, our recent survey revealed that nearly half of organisations are already using it and a third plan to incorporate it into their business models in the future," said Will Griffith, VP & GM APJ at Tealium.

"We’ll see a larger number of Asia-based organisations turn to off-the-shelf solutions in the coming year. As products emerge that don’t require coding or programming skills, AI and machine learning (ML) will become democratised. This easy access and implementation will mean your average Joe will be harnessing data in a way we would never have imagined possible even last year."

Zakir Ahmed, Senior VP and GM, Asia Pacific & Japan at Kofax, said the winning use case has to do with digital workflow transformation. "In 2021, AI finds its winning use case – imbedded in intelligent automation platforms and leveraged as a key accelerator to achieving digital workflow transformation. No longer the sole domain of data scientists within large organisations, AI use in 2021 will spread to the masses," he said.

"ML, natural language processing, intelligent optical character recognition (OCR), and image recognition imbedded in intelligent automation platforms will empower citizen developers to achieve digital workflow transformation."

Developments for AI are proceeding apace along many aspects of the technology ecosystem:

Ethical AI

Ethical AI will take a key role in product development in 2021, but it is a difficult problem to solve, said Krishna Tammana, CTO, Talend. "Companies are using data and AI to create solutions, but they may be bypassing human rights in terms of discrimination, surveillance, transparency, privacy, security, freedom of expression, the right to work, and access to public services. To avoid increasing reputational, regulatory and legal risks, ethical AI is imperative and will eventually give way to AI policy.

"AI policy will ensure a high standard of transparency and protective measures for people. In the data sphere, CEOs and CTOs will need to find ways to eliminate bias in algorithms through careful analysis, vetting and programming."

Formative AI

Monmayuri Ray, Solutions Architect, GitLab said that the biggest development in the next five years will be the application of formative AI technologies and operationalising machine learning (MLOps) in businesses to support cost-effective prediction and decision-making.

"Formative AI is defined by Gartner as a type of AI capable of dynamically changing to respond to a situation. It ranges from AI that can dynamically adapt over time to technologies that can generate novel models to solve specific problems. MLOps focuses on orchestration of machine learning models to reduce cycle time and deploy models faster and more efficiently. MLOps goes hand in hand with the enablement of formative AI," Ray said.

Driving demand for new skills

Griffith said, "With AI taking on much of the heavy lifting in 2021, an evolution of skills will undoubtedly follow. Organisations are increasingly looking for creative problem solvers and those with the soft skills that technology does not yet have the capabilities to take over. After all, AI and ML is entirely dependent on the context applied by the people monitoring it.”

Sustainability and AI

Hazra of Micron said sustainability concerns could change AI hardware. "Beyond 2021, we could see the industry moving AI closer to the memory in a 3D package to create more efficiencies, or work to finetune AI algorithms to ensure every bit of data—and energy used—is not going to waste," he said.