It would be impossible to predict what artificial intelligence will look like 10 or even 5 years from now. Even a modest goal like making a 12-month forecast could prove challenging. However, PricewaterhouseCoopers has done just that in a new paper, released in mid-January, that offers up several predictions for how AI will unfold in 2018. While forecasts of advancing AI technology displacing workers are commonplace, it hasn't really happened yet. Rather, new jobs offset those that are lost. That will continue this year, PwC says.

By Nahla Nana, Director of Communication, IABC, EMENA Imagine a humanoid robot walking into a conference room and making a call with its client to discuss the latest in a PR campaign and formulate plans for a special event for an upcoming strategic announcement. While I do not write off this as a utopian concept, I would say humans will remain in command of the most of the tasks in a public relations professional's job description at least in the foreseeable future. MUST READ: Why do modern marketers need Artificial Intelligence anyway? As we are already witnessing, almost every discussion on disruptive technologies including Artificial Intelligence eventually ends up in stoking fears over job losses for another time. Although this may be true that many industries are threatened by the disruption, which often leads to closure of some divisions or headcount reduction, in public relations business it is certainly bringing positive changes.

TORONTO, June 15, 2017 /CNW/ - New research released by Accenture (ACN) reveals that companies with optimal artificial intelligence (AI) innovation strategies generate greater shareholder value. But less than one fifth of leading companies that leverage AI have achieved this performance in recent years. These companies have demonstrated high'AIQ' by combining strong in-house innovation and external collaboration. Accenture's report "Boost Your AIQ: Transforming into an AI Business," published in collaboration with the G20 Young Entrepreneurs' Alliance, assesses both the Fortune Global 100 and Accenture's list of Intelligent 100 pioneers in the development and application of AI technologies, for the period of 2010 to 2016. In order to measure their Artificial Intelligence Quotient (AIQ), the research analyzes the level of both their in-house capabilities and investments in AI as well as their commitment to partnering with outside partners.

This year's Data Science Bowl focus Anyone who is plugged into the tech world knows that AI and big data is big business right now. Our technological ability to process and analyze large troves of data grows every year, unlocking new doors at every turn. Big data and AI is big business, but it's also key to solving some of the world's biggest problems. One of the areas where this progress is especially exciting is in medical research--where once it took a pair of human eyes to sort through millions of cell images, we now have AI which can perform the same analyses by many orders of magnitude faster. With this in mind, Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation, best known as Booz Allen, widely-renowned management and consulting and IT firm, and Kaggle, the world's largest online data science community, announced today the fourth annual Data Science Bowl.

The promise of AI and other cognitive technologies is enticing companies to take on aggressive new initiatives. Authors Davenport and Ronanki share how to apply cognitive technologies from robotics to deep learning in bold new ways, based on their study of 152 cognitive projects and the results of Deloitte's 2017 state of cognitive survey. Taking an incremental approach--rather than a transformative approach--helps organizations avoid potential setbacks. In fact, "low-hanging fruit" projects that streamline business processes and augment, rather than replace, human capabilities are much more likely to be successful than the most highly ambitious projects. Here, you'll see how organizations are improving products and creating new ones, making better decisions, and freeing up workers to be more creative using cognitive technologies.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is remarkably complex and advancing quickly. It's impossible for anyone to give a precise vision of how the next several years will unfold. But it is possible to make specific predictions about AI trends for the next year, then share key implications for business, government, and society. Many of these nascent trends are already underway. We've made eight such predictions--based on insights from AI visionaries, as well as what PwC leaders see as they advise clients around the world who are putting AI to work in their own organizations.

The impact of machine learning applications – from machine vision to voice recognition – will be massively enhanced via the deployment of 800,000 machine learning centric chips in data centres this year – roughly quadruple the volume in 2016. And one billion smartphone users will create augmented reality (AR) content in 2018 globally, with half of UK smartphone users doing so. The findings stand out in Deloitte UK's TMT Predictions 2018 report, from its technology-focused practice, published today. A surge in deployment of FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays) and ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits) - will be a core driver in the use of machine learning. FPGAs and ASICs will represent between a quarter and a third of all machine learning chips deployed this year.

VoLTE is expected to be the most prevalent voice technology in the future. It is also estimated that more than 90 percent of all mobile subscribers will comprise of broadband subscribers by 2023, according to a Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP report. OTT platforms are witnessing an explosion in original content due to increase in consumption and viewership, the report says, adding that they will gradually become a preferred medium over television, with the consumers of vernacular content likely to become over 2.5 times that of English language content by 2021, it said. The publication highlights the fact that'Machine Learning' will intensify among medium and large-sized enterprises. Compared to 2017, the number of implementations and pilot projects using machine learning technology is likely to double in 2018 and then doubling again in 2020.

A lot of modern-day technology and applications rely on artificial intelligence and even then, it is probably just the beginning. A survey conducted by Deloitte in 16 developed markets (not including India), reveals that 65 percent of smartphone users have used an application featuring machine learning in the past. Most of them are personalised features assisting us in day to day life like predictive texts, route suggestions, voice to text, etc. Unsurprisingly, the most common AI tool that smartphone owners have experienced is predictive texts. At least half the respondents included in the survey affirmed their awareness of the tool and more than one-third of them claimed to have used it despite its notoriety for botching up messages. Route suggestions while using online maps such as Here maps or Google Maps is the second-most familiar AI tool that people have experienced.

This year's Data Science Bowl focus Anyone who is plugged into the tech world knows that AI and big data is big business right now. Our technological ability to process and analyze large troves of data grows every year, unlocking new doors at every turn. Big data and AI is big business, but it's also key to solving some of the world's biggest problems. One of the areas where this progress is especially exciting is in medical research--where once it took a pair of human eyes to sort through millions of cell images, we now have AI which can perform the same analyses by many orders of magnitude faster. With this in mind, Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation, best known as Booz Allen, widely-renowned management and consulting and IT firm, and Kaggle, the world's largest online data science commmunity, announced today the fourth annual Data Science Bowl.