How to get the business to buy into AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) advocates within enterprise IT teams must focus their efforts on solving "real business problems" if they are to convince the board to support the technology. That was the key message from BGL Group's insight and technology manager, who was speaking at Computing's Big Data and Analytics Summit 2016 this morning. Mike Maddock began by spelling out the differences between the public's perception of AI, and what it can now realistically achieve for the enterprise. He described Gartner's recent prediction that, by 2020, five per cent of financial transactions across the world will be carried out by AI, as a "bold claim". He also cast doubt on the usefulness of hypothesis-driven AI, as epitomised IBM's Watson, which achieved fame after its victory in the US gameshow Jeopardy.