Business leaders no longer think about artificial intelligence in terms of future impact--they're seeing the impact today. AI is appearing in all corners of business, transforming the way companies operate. Health care is no exception. Health care players are using AI to address significant inefficiencies and open up powerful new opportunities. These include everything from the delivery of remote health care services to the early diagnosis of disease and the hunt for new life-saving medicines.

AI is an amalgam of novel methods for gathering data (including machine vision, speech recognition, and natural language processing), new processing techniques (such as machine learning), and innovative interfaces with the real world (including speech generation and 3D navigation). While the term AI is often used to encompass a broad array of technologies, it should not be confused with traditional business intelligence or business analytics, both of which typically rely on structured data--applying classical statistics such as variances, correlations, and regressions to produce insights for business. It harnesses diverse and unstructured data sets and employs novel methods such as neural networks to adapt and learn. AI is taking off in health care today for three reasons. First, in developed markets there is mounting pressure to contain or reduce health care costs and improve outcomes.