We all know about the paradigm-changing use of AI for Netflix recommendations, chatbots that impersonate customer service agents online, and the dynamic pricing of hotel rooms. Such efforts are the value creation engines of countless large, successful companies. But organisations can also adopt a decidedly less splashy and, at face value, more pedestrian use of AI--to process documents faster and simplify operational procedures. Although this use is aimed at reducing costs rather than transforming industries, 'boring AI' is actually quite exciting--because it confronts issues that all companies wrestle with, and because the gains in productivity are real. Recent research by PwC on automating analytics found that even the most rudimentary AI-based extraction techniques can save businesses 30–40% of the hours typically spent on such processes.

Matt Velloso, a technical advisor to Microsoft's CEO, got 24,000 likes on this tweet posted in November 2018: "Difference between machine learning and AI: If it is written in Python, it's probably machine learning. If it is written in PowerPoint, it's probably AI." This sums up the AI frenzy that has seized marketing departments and media pundits for the last three years. With the coming of age of machine learning and deep learning, many have hastily jumped to the conclusion that, at long last, humans are on the verge of creating a machine in their own image, capable of autonomous thinking--general artificial intelligence somehow emerging from more and more complex algorithms. Yes, neural networks have revolutionized the computer vision space and transformed natural language processing.

That mix includes chatbots and numerous machine learning models, but these, Papatla pointed out, are just commodities.

That mix includes chatbots and numerous machine learning models, but these, Papatla pointed out, are just commodities.

I keep having the same conversation with companies that want to brief me about their latest AI-related news. It goes something like this: They have some new feature or improved stats or fresh achievement that's specific to their business. Then we get to the AI part, and I start to salivate, asking them to tell me more and go deep. The reply is increasingly some version of "We use [a mostly unexciting AI tool] to do it." Coming from a background where I'm accustomed to covering technology for technology's sake, that feels like a letdown.