As artificial intelligence drives a fourth industrial revolution, fears and doubts about AI are pervasive. In the first industrial revolution, machines began replacing manual labor, and there were human concerns over the change. At hand today, in the fourth industrial revolution, are rational and irrational fears. With any new radical thinking and ideas, disruption in the status quo and an influx of unknown information -- people have fear. Great idea -- but it was scary because it was unknown.

The number of digital payments being made across the globe is increasing dramatically. Unfortunately, this volume has been matched by an increase in the number of fraudulent incidents. In fact, fraud has reached the highest levels on record, affecting more organizations than ever. The scale of the problem was revealed in last year's PWC Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey. Nearly half (49%) of the 7,228 businesses across 123 territories that were interviewed reported that they had experienced fraud and economic crime over a two-year period.

A blue-collar worker is a working class person who performs manual labor. Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled manufacturing, mining, sanitation, custodial work, textile manufacturing, power plant operations, farming, commercial fishing, landscaping, pest control, food processing, oil field work, waste disposal, recycling, electrical, plumbing, construction, mechanic, maintenance, warehousing, shipping, technical installation, and many other types of physical work. Blue-collar work often involves something being physically built or maintained. In contrast, the white-collar worker typically performs work in an office environment and may involve sitting at a computer or desk. A third type of work is a service worker (pink collar) whose labor is related to customer interaction, entertainment, sales or other service-oriented work.

By demonstrating how to automate IT operations first, IT leaders can showcase the expertise needed to lead the business's overall IPA transformation. Intelligent Process Automation (IPA)--a set of technologies that combines process redesign, process automation, and machine learning--is rapidly reshaping the global economy, with significant gains for organizations that adopt it at scale. As an earlier McKinsey article explains, some companies across industries have already been able to automate 50 to 70 percent of tasks with return on investment generally in triple-digit percentages. While people often focus on the cost savings, IPA also provides significant other benefits, including speed, precision, and improved customer service. But for companies to get the full value of IPA, IT will need to play a leading role. The track record of early adopters clearly demonstrates that IPA projects carried out without the active participation of IT are likely to fail.

The term "machine learning" might not mean much to you. You might imagine a computer playing chess, calculating the multitude of moves and the possible countermoves. But, when you hear the term "artificial intelligence" or "AI," however, it's more likely you have visions of Skynet and the rise of our inevitable robot overlords. But, the truth of artificial intelligence -- and particularly machine learning -- is far less sinister, and it's actually not something of the far-off future. It's here today, and it's shaping and simplifying the way we live, work, travel and communicate.

Will artificial intelligence replace human employees? Executives of a food delivery app and a recruitment start-up weigh in. Artificial intelligence, or the use of computer systems to do tasks that normally require human intelligence, is creating a lot of buzz these days. Some say human employees will have to constantly be on their toes and keep on upgrading their skills, for they might be replaced by AI one day. But will this technology completely replace manpower?

The Financial Times reported earlier this year that one of the largest clothing manufacturers, Hong Kong-based Crystal Group, proclaimed robotics could not compete with the cost and quality of manual labor. Crystal's Chief Executive, Andrew Lo, emphatically declared, "The handling of soft materials is really hard for robots." Lo did leave the door open for future consideration by acknowledging such budding technologies as "interesting." One company mentioned by Lo was Georgia Tech spinout, Softwear Automation. Softwear made news last summer by announcing its contract with an Arkansas apparel factory to update 21 production lines with its Sewbot automated sewing machines. The factory is owned by Chinese manufacturer Tianyuan Garments, which produces over 20 million T-shirts a year for Adidas.

How do companies measure the ROI on artificial intelligence technology? AI technology typically replaces manual labor, said Mike Morris, CEO at Topcoder in Glastonbury, Conn., so one simple measurement of AI ROI is time. Whether the application of AI actually improves the employee or customer experience is tougher to ascertain. SearchCIO caught up with Morris at the recent MIT Sloan CIO Symposium and talked about how Topcoder -- a crowdsourcing platform that hosts application design, software development and data science competitions -- is investing in AI, how the cloud enabled the company's business model, and why speed is a vital component for any innovation strategy. Below are excerpts from the interview; click on the player to hear the interview in its entirety. Are you investing in AI at your company?

Driving long distances (or using New York City's subway system) used to be a much more complicated affair, generally requiring maps, a sense of direction, some luck and the occasional stop to ask questions of strangers. Turn-by-turn navigation apps have changed all that: You may still take a wrong turn along the way, but the apps usually get you back on track with little fuss. Self-service integration specialist SnapLogic is turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to help its customers achieve that sort of turn-by-turn navigation when it comes to enterprise integration. Citing GPS navigation and digital home assistants like Amazon's Alexa, SnapLogic Founder and CEO Gaurav Dhillon says the company's new technology, Iris, will eliminate the integration backlog that stifles so many technology initiatives through the use of AI to automate highly repetitive, low-level development tasks. "Companies can't innovate and transform their businesses if they're bogged down in rote, repetitive tasks that don't do much for the organization," Doug Henschen, vice president and principal analyst at Constellation Research, said in a statement last week.

Driving long distances (or using New York City's subway system) used to be a much more complicated affair, generally requiring maps, a sense of direction, some luck and the occasional stop to ask questions of strangers. Turn-by-turn navigation apps have changed all that: You may still take a wrong turn along the way, but the apps usually get you back on track with little fuss. Self-service integration specialist SnapLogic is turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to help its customers achieve that sort of turn-by-turn navigation when it comes to enterprise integration. Citing GPS navigation and digital home assistants like Amazon's Alexa, SnapLogic Founder and CEO Gaurav Dhillon says the company's new technology, Iris, will eliminate the integration backlog that stifles so many technology initiatives through the use of AI to automate highly repetitive, low-level development tasks. "Companies can't innovate and transform their businesses if they're bogged down in rote, repetitive tasks that don't do much for the organization," Doug Henschen, vice president and principal analyst at Constellation Research, said in a statement last week.