I'd guess almost 1,000 people came to hear thought leaders James Guszcza, FCAS, of Deloitte and David Ingram, FSA, of Willis Towers Watson talk about data science and behavioral science at the CAS Annual Meeting in Anaheim. They were talking, at least it sounded to me as I considered it and went back through my notes, about what it means to be an actuary today. That's a topic a lot of us think about as our profession seems encroached upon by artificial intelligence (AI). Once artificial intelligence, whatever it is, (Guszcza noted that the definition of AI is erratically drawn), gets cranking, it will be machines scrubbing, collating, analyzing and concluding -- yes, telling us -- what we humans should think. As actuaries we have always assumed that to the greatest brain goes the truth.

Today, most enterprises using ML have only a handful of deployments and pilots under way, but, according to Deloitte Global, progress in five key areas should make it easier and faster to develop ML solutions. In response, technology vendors are creating compact ML software models to undertake tasks such as image recognition and language translation on portable devices. Semiconductor vendors are developing their own power-efficient AI chips to bring ML to mobile devices. With smartphones an increasingly viable deployment option for ML, the number of potential applications is growing. Collectively, the five vectors of ML progress should double the intensity with which enterprises are using this technology by the end of 2018.

Businesses risk missing major growth opportunities unless CEOs take immediate steps to pivot their workforces and equip their people to work with intelligent technologies, according to new research by Accenture. The Accenture Strategy report, Reworking the Revolution: Are you ready to compete as intelligent technology meets human ingenuity to create the future workforce?, estimates that if businesses invest in AI and human-machine collaboration at the same rate as top performing companies, they could boost revenues by 38 per cent by 2022 and raise employment levels by 10 per cent. Collectively, this would lift profits by US$4.8 trillion globally over the same period. For the average S&P500 company, this equates to US$7.5 billion of revenues and a US$880 million lift to profitability. Both leaders and workers are optimistic about the potential of AI on business results and on work experiences, according to the study.

For the people most immersed in the tech sector, it's hard to think of a more controversial topic than the ultimate impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on society. By eventually empowering machines with a level of superintelligence, there are many different possible outcomes ranging from Kurzweil's technological singularity to the more dire predictions popularized by Elon Musk. Despite this wide gap in potential outcomes, most technologists do agree on one thing: AI will have a profound impact on the society and the way we do business. Today's infographic comes from the Extraordinary Future 2017, a new conference in Vancouver, BC that focuses on emerging technologies such as AI, autonomous vehicles, fintech, and blockchain tech. In the below infographic, we look recent projections from PwC and Accenture regarding AI's economic impact, as well as the industries and countries that will be the most profoundly affected.

Intelligent machines are revolutionizing every aspect of our lives. Leading businesses are successfully using artificial intelligence (AI) to improve productivity. But to achieve superior rates of growth, and to create a new wave of employment, they must now apply AI in more innovative ways. An alliance between humans and machines will usher in a new era of work and drive competitive advantage: The full promise of AI depends on humans and machines working together to develop differentiated customer experiences and to create entirely new products, services and markets. That is the real opportunity of AI.

Booz Allen Hamilton has been at the forefront of strategy and technology for more than 100 years. Today, the firm provides management and technology consulting and engineering services to leading Fortune 500 corporations, governments, and not-for-profits across the globe. Booz Allen partners with public and private sector clients to solve their most difficult challenges through a combination of consulting, analytics, mission operations, technology, systems delivery, cybersecurity, engineering and innovation expertise. So you want to be a Data Scientist? Booz Allen Hamilton is no longer just a consulting firm.

The line between the digital and physical is blurring. From artificial intelligence to cybersecurity to advanced manufacturing, the Fourth Industrial Revolution could fundamentally change how technology interacts with humanity--and our aspirations.

Artificial intelligence and automation are transforming the profession, giving rise to new disciplines such as programmatic and next-generation advertising. However, whereas smart machines and intelligent algorithms are shouldering more responsibility for advertising processes and tasks, they're also making advertising experiences more intelligent and better suited to our needs. This is because technology provides a means by which we can know ourselves better and cater to our human behaviour with a greater degree of precision. Take the way we view content. The human eye is actually a fairly limited piece of equipment.

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In the age of artificial intelligence (AI), business success will increasingly depend on people and machines collaborating with each other. AI will elevate people's capabilities as workers help intelligent machines to learn and improve. This will not only drive efficiencies, but create new forms of growth and innovation. To succeed, organizations must reimagine work, pivot their workforce to new growth models and'new skill' their people to do more valuable work.