Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) mean that soon no-one will need to go on holiday, have dinner in a restaurant, watch a film, or even go on a date. Thanks to the miracle of technology, we'll be able to send the machines to perform these tiresome chores for us, freeing up valuable time for much more satisfying tasks such as completing our tax returns. This dystopian vision is obviously ridiculous, but it illustrates how we're getting the conversation about AI the wrong way around. Consider, for example, how most stories about AI focus on how technology can beat the world's best Go player, or write genuinely frightening horror stories. All this is terribly clever, but it doesn't help businesses to harness the power of AI.

While the future promised by films such as Minority Report remains a fantasy, advancements in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) make a world where computers outsmart humans seem increasingly likely. Computer security is an arena that would be an obvious benefactor from AI. Computer code is riddled with flaws because it is inherently complex, poorly documented and of course…written by humans. Today, it is largely the task of humans to root out those same flaws and patch them – a costly and time-consuming process that ensures a large window of opportunity for hackers, should they uncover those flaws before they can be addressed. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was so interested in the potential impact of AI on computer security that it was willing to place a £44M bet to find out what that potential was. It held the Cyber Grand Challenge at the famed DEFCON security conference last summer with £4M in prize money on the line.

The AI company is in the early stages of partnering with the UK's National Grid DeepMind is in talks with the UK's National Grid to boost energy efficiency using artificial intelligence. The AI company, acquired by Google for £400 million in 2014, has developed algorithms that can anticipate energy demand and supply. These algorithms are already being used within Google's own data centres, allowing the tech giant to cut energy by 40%, but they are now in talks with the National Grid, which owns and operates energy infrastructure across the UK. DeepMind is offering AI-powered solutions that could help balance energy supply and demand across the nation. "We're early stages talking to National Grid and other big providers about how we could look at the sorts of problems they have," Demis Hassabis, DeepMind's co-founder and CEO, told the Financial Times.

As banking organisations, financial services providers and brands predict and plan for the way consumers will manage their money in the future, artificial intelligence (AI) is high on the business development strategy for 2017 and beyond. AI is already around us and used everyday within payments, money management and for robo-advice, particularly in the area of intelligent digital assistants that handle regular customer service enquiries and tasks. It can process'big data' far more efficiently than humans and can recognise speech, images, text, patterns of online behaviour, for example to detect fraud as well as appropriate advertisements for upselling. Smart machines and technology can turn data into customer insights and enhance service provisions, bringing the digital experience closer to the human interaction for consumers. Santander announced it is to provide secure transactions using voice recognition via its banking app, while Royal Bank of Scotland has trialled'Luvo' AI customer service assistance to interact with staff and potentially serve customers in the future.

As banking organisations, financial services providers and brands predict and plan for the way consumers will manage their money in the future, artificial intelligence (AI) is high on the business development strategy for 2017 and beyond. AI is already around us and used everyday within payments, money management and for robo-advice, particularly in the area of intelligent digital assistants that handle regular customer service enquiries and tasks. It can process'big data' far more efficiently than humans and can recognise speech, images, text, patterns of online behaviour, for example to detect fraud as well as appropriate advertisements for upselling. Smart machines and technology can turn data into customer insights and enhance service provisions, bringing the digital experience closer to the human interaction for consumers. Santander announced it is to provide secure transactions using voice recognition via its banking app, while Royal Bank of Scotland has trialled'Luvo' AI customer service assistance to interact with staff and potentially serve customers in the future.