2018 – The Year of AI

If the history of human advancement has taught us one thing it is this: genuine step-change progress does not occur because of a single technology breakthrough, but a combination of multiple complementary factors coming together at the same time. The Industrial Revolution, which began in the UK around 1760, was driven by an amalgamation of steam power, improvements in iron production and the development of the first machine tools. Similarly, the PC revolution of the early 1970's was the outcome of simultaneous advancements in micro-processing, memory storage, software programming and other factors. Now, as we enter 2018, we are at the cusp of a new revolution, one that will ultimately transform every organisation, every industry and every public service across the world. This is referring to Artificial Intelligence – or AI – and this 2018 is the year that this will start to become mainstream, to begin to impact many aspects of our lives in a truly ubiquitous and meaningful way.