Rise of the Machine Learning Ecosystem

It's tempting to think of artificial intelligence (AI), cognitive computing and deep learning capabilities as somewhat futuristic--even with companies such as IBM, Microsoft and Google introducing increasingly sophisticated features. Yet machine learning--which constantly sorts through incoming data and improves on its own over time--is already making waves across a wide swath of industries, including travel, pharmaceutical research and financial services. Facebook and Google use machine learning to analyze users, click patterns and deliver personalized content and ads. Others are turning to machine learning and predictive analytics to understand everything from consumer buying and spending patterns to real estate and housing rental markets. Still others are putting it to use to improve cyber-security.