The Build-or-Buy Dilemma in AI

Recent computing advances--fostered by Moore's law and its corollaries, as well as big data and algorithmic advances--have caused AI business applications to mushroom. Many of them also take advantage of recent advances in vision and language by machines. Machine vision, for example, is a core component of robots, drones, and self-driving vehicles, while speech recognition and natural language processing are integral to document processing, chatbots, and translation devices. But until recently, AI was largely relegated to an academic niche. As a result, few seasoned professionals currently work in the field--and still fewer of them understand business processes, such as supply chains, or have experience interacting with business executives.