No Longer an Idea of the Future, Artificial Intelligence Is Here and You Are Probably Already Using It

It might surprise some of you to know that artificial intelligence (AI) is already in use and a routine part of our daily lives, but we leverage this technology when we use our smartphones or other devices to ask Apple's Siri, Microsoft's Cortana, Google Now, or Amazon's Alexa a question to get the facts or data we are looking for. Using your voice, you can say, "Where's the nearest gas station?" or "What's on my calendar today?", and the intelligent personal assistant (IPA) will respond by finding information and relaying it from your phone or sending commands to other apps. However, AI is not only being used in the context of a personal assistant. Self-driving cars are moving closer to reality, retailers are using anticipatory shipping in the hopes to send you items before you need them, and banks are using AI to detect fraud to monitor accounts and alert the owners when questionable transactions occur. So it is here, but what is AI? AI is an intelligent system's ability to improve predictions, accelerate problem solving, and automate administrative tasks, ushering in an era of automation.