What are the Challenges for Big Data and Artificial Intelligence?
For the moment, Artificial Intelligence is not regulated in a specific way. Many people express security concerns. This problem needs to be resolved quickly. Any information can be easily stolen by hackers. Highly sophisticated models make us vulnerable to many threats.
Moreover, many worry about the control around this technology. The lack of laws to govern the sales and purchase of Artificial Intelligence software, if these programs are intended to control traffic, health systems, or the stock market, it is necessary to put in place governance laws.
There is no doubt that autonomous decision-making is the future. However, again, many fears are emerging about the authenticity and ethics of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data. The accumulation of data on Cloud servers and its accessibility to fraudsters can be fatal for businesses.
All these challenges are daunting. They give rise to suspicion around this convergence between Artificial Intelligence and Big Data. It is important to remember that technologies are only disruptive when we are poorly prepared.
Can Big Data solve the problems and dangers of Artificial Intelligence?
In the recent years, agreements between large companies and startups dedicated to Artificial Intelligence have increased significantly. This number rose from 160 in 2012 to 658 in 2016. Companies use Artificial Intelligence for a wide variety of uses, ranging from autonomous car development to remote sensing of emotion.
Apart from these uses, Artificial Intelligence can be even more useful for businesses through what is called Account-Based Intelligence.
Account-Based Intelligence is the latest iteration of the dream of sales and one-to-one marketing . Today, we are closer than ever to achieving this utopia.
Example of Artificial Intelligence feeding on Big Data
First, we are generating more data today than ever before. Every second, humanity produces 6,000 tweets, 40,000 Google searches, and 2 million emails. By 2019, global web traffic will surpass 2 zettabytes per year.
This huge amount of data is the first step towards Account-Based Intelligence, because the ABI requires granular information about each target company. However, it also raises a new problem. Companies must find how to turn this data into exploitable insights.
Indeed, this task is impossible to accomplish using traditional marketing tools or simple Google searches. The web is too massive is disorganized to achieve it as well. Many companies spend millions of dollars to mix data sources and solution points, which ultimately results in only a very low conversion rate. For good reason, this method usually results in sending the wrong message to the wrong people at the wrong time.
The tools of Artificial Intelligence for business
Until recently, computers struggled to interpret unstructured data like Facebook content and YouTube videos. However, with recent advances in cognitive computing and processing power, things are changing.
However, this change can benefit businesses for their sales and marketing. Indeed, information on business leaders, the decisions they make, their attitude and demographics are not stored properly within small databases. They are scattered in social media publications, browsing history and geolocation data. Today, new tools allow startup leaders to make sense of this data.
Data Crawlers
Data Crawlers undermine the web autonomously in search of unstructured data. They examine entities, establish relationships, and create customer profiles. With an estimated 70 percent increase in data per year, it is critical that these programs continually scan the web for the most relevant information.
Startups can use them to deploy the ABI. For example, to find new customers, browsing the web can reveal a niche of customers whose demographics match those of the best current customers.
In 2015, Microsoft acquired Metanaunix for this purpose. By using crawlers, the startup can explore a large amount of non-relational data. It then recovers insights from different sources faster and more accurately than humans.
Natural language processing
Natural language processing examines interactions between computers and humans to extract meaning from conversations. By spotting some words or phrases, this technology helps to analyze feelings about the brand. It also predicts which audiences will be more receptive to the company’s message. This is essential in order to communicate the right message to the right people, which is the primary criterion of the ABI.
If the company wants to know what people are saying about its products on social networks, natural language processing can explore social media publications, link them with certain consumer groups, and find out what’s important the most for each group . This system can be used to respond to consumer criticism and positive reviews, to solve problems, and to improve a product.
If you want to try this technology for yourself, be aware that the iv.ai, a startup allows anyone to try out their natural language processing platform. Type any phase to know the emotion that corresponds to it.
Machine Learning
Machine Learning allows computers to learn and act without being explicitly programmed. This technology looks for patterns within the data to drive the actions of an Artificial Intelligence program, taking into account the context. The true ABI requires dynamic templates, and the Learning machine automatically adjusts them as new data emerges.
Without even knowing it, new companies are already taking advantage of Machine Learning. Facebook uses this technology to personalize the news feed based on clicks and likes. Other companies use this technology to predict customer loyalty or purchasing behavior, predict product performance, or anticipate risks.
Google Now is probably the most advanced Machine Learning app yet. Google learns user habits, mimics their conversation style, and provides them with smart recommendations. For example, if the user needs to go to the airport for a flight that will take place in 30 minutes, Google Now can analyze the traffic delays and schedule an Uber that will take him there on time.
Artificial intelligence is strong, it without a doubt a great technology. It can find data inaccessible to humans, and distill meaning with great precision. Combined with the ABI, it can also guide the company to its next best customers. This technology will be the biggest change of the century in the field of business, and the revolution is just beginning.
