Many of these titles probably sound familiar to you. For a long time now, the concept of artificial intelligence has provided the masses with novels and blockbuster movies of science fiction, drama, comedy, and even unexpected stories of friendship. Hollywood and all of its fans have enjoyed these stories over the years -- appreciating them for what they are: Entertainment. Today, artificial intelligence (AI) has a very different meaning. In fact, as AI has moved from the silver screen to the screens of modern computers used by virtually every segment of society, it has a remarkably different purpose.

Cognitive technology solutions that leverage artificial intelligence (AI) advancements have moved seemingly overnight from the computing fringe to mainstream business practice. At least, that's what a recent survey conducted by IBM and IDG suggests at first glance. Of the 200 executives and decision makers at large enterprises who participated, 51% said they have already deployed AI in their cloud environments, and the remaining 49% said they would do so in the next 12 months. But what types of cognitive solutions are being adopted? The IBM/IDG survey provides data on two high-profile AI-based technologies: Nearly two-thirds (64%) of the survey respondents said they have already deployed machine learning technology in some fashion, and 56% said they are currently using "bots" – software-based robots that automate tasks and human-machine interactions in various ways.

It seems businesses these days are pinning their hopes on artificial intelligence to finally make bank from big data -- and this hasn't escaped the notice of software vendors. They're stamping AI on new products with such repetitive thuds, one can easily guess the puff inside the packaging. Knowing what AI can and can't do could help companies shop wisely for technology that delivers on its promise. "Cognitive organizations are not going to happen tomorrow morning," said Tripp Braden (pictured, third from left), executive coach and growth strategist at Strategic Performance Partners. A cognitive business would be fully data and AI-driven across all departments; even companies on the cutting edge are several years out from becoming one, he added.

And you need some information about the clients you will be meeting for the first time. Power up your tablet and download a spreadsheet that is more spread than sheet. And you start searching and searching and searching for the pertinent information. But what if what you are looking for is not part of the standard ledger? There's no one in the car but you, but you are dying to ask a question.

A cognitive business takes advantage of recent developments in cognitive computing to improve the overall effectiveness of its people, processes and technology. Data is starting to be pulled from more and more sources today to help solve problems in diverse fields – from health care to national defense and from daily operations to setting the right metrics that measure progress towards strategic and tactical goals. In 2016, the amount of global data being collected and analyzed is unprecedented--and growing. Working with that data in smarter ways is the key to future business success. For example, IBM's Watson relies on deep learning algorithms and neural networks to process information by comparing it to a teaching set of data in research hospitals to diagnose symptoms and recommend better patient treatment plans. As Internet of Things (IoT) sensors expand to new areas, and as artificial intelligence becomes more and more of a reality over the next two decades, businesses will rely on a new mix of real-time data, analytical processing and cutting edge alternative solutions to transform the way services are delivered. The right data will be collected and processed faster--yielding improved results for clients. Bottom line: a cognitive business is an increasingly smarter, data-driven business.

Massively parallel hardware will keep getting better and this will be a big boon to deep learning, which scales very well with parallel hardware. There are a lot of thrilling software techniques that were not possible even 1 to 2 years ago that could become mainstream thanks to these advances. For example, the AI Lab has pioneered techniques that store large chunks of a neural network directly on a chip to perform computation an order of magnitude faster. This only works on the latest, largest chips -- in the future, we'll have even more options.

Our newest platform is SAS Viya, our third in-memory, scalable, high-performance architecture. But SAS Viya is more than an architecture; it is truly a platform that allows customers to build the analytic enterprise. It is a paradigm shift for SAS.

AI is likely to impact nearly every industry in the world much in the same way the computer has done over the past 50 years. That said, in the last couple years I've seen a lot of momentum in Retail (e.g., Lowe's smart kitchen design center, Ziosk restaurant kiosks), Manufacturing (e.g., Rolls Royce connected engines, eSmart Systems, Schneider Electric smart power), Healthcare (e.g., Dartmouth Hitchcock connected care), and Banking and other Financial services (e.g., Tangerine, Quarterspot loan success predictions). These industries have significant amounts of data already available to them that they can use at relatively low costs to gain real efficiencies in how they run their operations, employ their people, improve their products, and anticipate the needs of others so they can better serve their customers.

Each of us generates nearly a gigabyte of data per day. This huge volume of data contains an incredible amount of information that we are able to read and organize thanks to cognitive computing. Cognitive computing comes from a mashup of cognitive science -- the study of the human brain and how it functions -- and computer science. he goal of cognitive computing is to simulate human thought processes in a computerized model. Using self-learning algorithms that use data mining, pattern recognition and natural language processing, the computer can mimic the way the human brain works. The potential areas of application of cognitive computing are many.

Cognitive computing has the potential to revolutionize your business. Imagine an IT system that can understand, learn and reason. You speak to the system and it understands natural language, context and nuance. It can read and recall millions of pages of text. It learns and synthesizes data to provide expert recommendations on a range of topics. A cognitive business uses this technology to create business insights.