Autonomous In Action: Self-Driving Cars Get All The Publicity, But Other Industries Are Already Getting Exceptional Value From Ai-based Systems

Truly "autonomous" systems are starting to replace or augment many of the routine tasks and processes people perform every day, improving efficiency while freeing individuals for higher-level pursuits. But what's often overlooked is how much progress is happening in other areas and industries: healthcare, air travel, energy provision, retail, logistics, agriculture, and construction. Autonomous systems are even helping governments match refugees with the most suitable communities to live, as detailed in one of the four real-world vignettes we present below. Such optimism makes sense, given advances such as self-managing and self-patching databases in IT. But our survey's other findings might underestimate the pace of change: Just 24% say they expect to see significant use of autonomous tech in construction, for example, even though self-driving bulldozers already are in use on select projects.