Experts Say We've Reached A Pivotal Moment For AI

Most examples of artificial intelligence in the enterprise today are just on the fringe of what's possible with the technology in the future, according to a group of 10 industry thought leaders who met in New York City on Monday as part of the latest edition of Think Tank by Adobe. Kathryn Hume, VP of product and strategy at Integrate.ai, offered some early perspective by saying that AI is not a new concept. In fact, the exploration of AI has been going on for well over 50 years. "We are swimming in data," Hume said. "There's a tremendous amount of it, and we are seeing an increase in the importance of the machine-learning algorithm. However, we're still in the early days of a true AI revolution, with many questions yet to be answered around what the tech is and is not, according to Susan Etlinger, an industry analyst at Altimeter Group, who also moderated the panel. AI Today AI's impact in the enterprise today is twofold. The first is AI-powered analytics systems built using data and algorithms, and whose decision-making gets better over time. These systems enable organizations to collect, store, and process data at scale, which, in turn, helps them make informed decisions for the future, Hume said. AI also is helping organizations become more efficient with its ability to "sense, think, and act to achieve a set of objectives," said Anand Rao, partner and global AI and innovation lead at PwC. He pointed to natural language processing, the ability to identify and classify objects, reasoning, problem solving, planning, and even simulating as examples of capabilities. "We as humanity are having this awakening," added Chris Duffey, head of AI innovation and strategy at Adobe (CMO.com's "There is this technology out there that accelerates and augments our thinking.