I am not Google or Facebook or Tencent or Alibaba. So what can AI do for me? The implied follow-up question is that given we know AI is driven by data and these organizations have massive data sets of various types, how can my organization possibly compete? The answer is that although those companies have great data – and with great data comes great responsibility, as some of these companies are learning, albeit slowly – they do not have deep troves of verticalized data specific to your company and your industry (unless of course, you happen to be a direct competitor of them, in which case good luck!) I've explored elsewhere the rise of AI platforms and there are quite a few cross-industry AI use cases that apply to almost any company beyond those with only a handful of employees, such as customer service in the form of chatbots or virtual assistants, content and document processing and personalization.

Google Assistant can draw on voice command, as seen here at the Google I/O conference in 2018, with the help of machine learning techniques. Artificial intelligence systems powered by machine learning have been creating headlines with applications as varied as making restaurant reservations by phone, sorting cucumbers, and distinguishing chihuahuas from muffins. Media buzz aside, many fast-growing startups are taking advantage of machine learning (ML) techniques like neural networks and support vector machines to learn from data, make predictions, improve products, and enhance business decisions. Unfortunately "machine learning theater" – companies pretending to use the technology to make theirs seem more sophisticated for a higher valuation – is also on the rise. Undeniably, ML is transforming businesses and industries, with some more likely to benefit than others.