Artificial intelligence will make its mark within next 3 years

That is one of the key takeaways from a recent survey of 835 executives from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). The survey shows 84% see the use of AI as "essential" to competitiveness, and half see the technology as "transformative." But for now, it's still only in widespread use among a handful of practitioners -- eight percent of executives use AI mainly as a workhorse for IT departments, mainly to detect security intrusions, user issues and deliver automation. Looking into the near future, everyone expects a lot out of AI. At least 32% of executives believe that by 2020, AI will be helping to guide their sales, marketing or customer service functions.