HALF MOON BAY, Calif.--Artificial intelligence is routinely touted at tech conferences and elsewhere as the "Next Big Thing" that is going to transform the customer experience and the ability of companies to better sell and market their wares. But there were also skeptical and cautionary notes sounded here, even from vendors, at the Connected Enterprise conference (running Oct. 22-25) sponsored by Constellation Research. "There are a lot of misconceptions about what AI can do in the enterprise. I would focus on really picking a specific problem," said Inhi Cho Suh, general manager of Watson Customer Engagement at IBM. For customers of IBM's Watson AI supercomputer services, Suh said it's important to focus on precise algorithms for small sets of data.

Can AI make us healthier, happier, better? That's the question on everyone's minds these days. If engineers continue to program AI to take away our jobs and our need to utilize our capacity for deductive reasoning and common sense, then the answer is clearly NO. Human beings thrive on being challenged. It develops will, intelligence, adaptability whether we recognize that fact or not.

Can AI make us healthier, happier, better? If engineers continue to program AI to take away our jobs and our need to utilize our capacity for deductive reasoning and common sense, then the answer is clearly NO. Human beings thrive on being challenged. It develops will, intelligence, adaptability whether we recognize that fact or not. On the other hand, with upsurge in health tech that uses AI to monitor our health systems and our sleep, the answer is YES.