Cloud AI services slowly but surely lure enterprise IT shops

Artificial intelligence is no longer reserved for sci-fi flicks, but the technology is still alien to many enterprise IT teams. Nevertheless, one adoption trend is clear: the public cloud will be the go-to destination for most enterprise AI workloads. "I'm not saying that AI won't happen in the enterprise in people's data centers, but this is a workload that will predominantly happen in the cloud," said Rob Koplowitz, principal analyst at Forrester Research. Some organizations will choose to keep AI applications -- particularly those that contain sensitive customer data -- in-house, as they do for other workloads with strict security or compliance requirements. But, in general, public cloud AI services will be the predominant model, agreed Adrian Bowles, lead analyst at Aragon Research.