A day after the Microsoft event, Google showed its Bard chatbot in action during an event that also encompassed other Google products. A phone meant to demonstrate some of the tech went missing, and the company said Bard would only be available in the coming weeks. Its stock fell 7 percent as Wall Street analysts questioned whether the company was losing ground to competitors. A blog post that first announced Bard and Google's plans for generative AI in search results contained an example of the AI making a mistake, underscoring concerns that the company's tech wasn't ready for prime time and that its rollout was rushed.

We have reached an inflection point for the adoption of tools such as natural language processing (NLP) that help organizations manage large sets of unstructured data. One factor driving demand for such technologies is the pending Patient Access rule deadline requiring the interoperability of full-text medical records. Payers particularly recognize that they will soon be flooded with unstructured data that must be managed to effectively inform patient care, meet value-based care goals, and drive predictive algorithms that improve outcomes. The growing presence of big tech and cloud vendors in the text analytics space has also raised overall awareness about these tools, which are increasingly available for easy and convenient consumption through cloud-based approaches instead of large-scale software deployments. Finally, the pandemic has impacted healthcare in many ways, including increased acceptance and demand for cloud-based technologies, which have enabled users to access and manage data remotely.

These and many other insights are from Capgemini Research Institute's research of enterprises' AI pilot, production and spending during the pandemic provide insights into what differentiates AI-at-scale leaders versus organizations struggling to get results. The AI-powered enterprise: Unlocking the potential of AI at scale is based on 950 interviews with AI leaders in enterprises with annual revenues between $1B to $25B, distributed across 11 nations. The study was completed in March and April 2020. For additional details on the methodology, please see pages 31 and 32. Capgemini has made the report available for free download here (PDF, 40 pp, no opt-in).

If you're still wondering about the role that AI will play as recruiting technology evolves, there are about 40 million new reasons to believe it will continue to heavily influence the future. Paradox, a conversational AI platform, announced yesterday that it received $40 million in new funding. The company, whose clients include McDonald's, CVS, Unilever, and other large organizations, plans to "leverage the funding to expedite its vision of a future where AI is a liberating force to help people do their best work," according to the company's press release. As Paradox's founder and CEO Aaron Matos explains, "No one goes into recruiting or HR because they like screening resumes, scheduling interviews, or managing paperwork." Hence, the company is looking to advance efforts around using its AI assistant, Olivia, to relieve common administrative burdens.

The US is a leader in investing capital into private AI with nearly US$12 billion. China, which came second with US$6.8 billion investment, also files more AI patents than any other country across the globe and three times more than Japan. The majority of AI patents filed between 2014-2018 were filed in the U.S. and Canada, and 94% of patents are filed in wealthy nations. Mergers and acquisitions worth $37 billion were spurred thanks to AI. At the same time, IPOs worth $34 billion were also associated with AI. Investment in AI startups recorded a rapid increase in the last ten years from a total of $1.3 billion raised in 2010 to over $40.4 billion.

In a recent article for Forbes, my colleague, Daniel Newman, called artificial intelligence (AI) one of the top five digital transformation trends in healthcare--and, like usual, he was onto something. It's no secret that healthcare is becoming increasingly affected by tech; just look at the possibilities surrounding the sensor and device-driven connectedness of the Internet of Things (IoT)). AI isn't far on the IoT's heels in terms of impact--and, if recent investment figures are any indication, it's going to be a close race. When healthcare providers leverage tech to improve patient care, everybody wins. Let's examine how AI is going to revolutionize healthcare as an industry.