Misconception 2 (of 5): Automated Machine Learning Will Unlock Enterprise AI

My first post in this series introduced the concept of enterprise AI and listed five common misconceptions, the first of which was covered here in the second post. This post deals with the second misconception, which relates to an important but often misunderstood initiative called automated machine learning, or AutoML. As we'll see, AutoML holds real promise and will likely play an important role in enterprise AI, but the confusion caused by unqualified assertions about AutoML can lead to grief. Definitions of AutoML vary slightly, but most are variations on this one from Microsoft: "Automated ML democratizes the machine learning model development process, and empowers its users, no matter their data science expertise, to identify an end-to-end machine learning pipeline for any problem." In light of these worthy objectives, and in light of claims by many vendors that they're delivering AutoML, it's not surprising that many are excited by it's potential to make the benefits of AI ubiquitous.