One of the myriad challenges of being a modern technology leader is separating the marketing hype from reality when it comes time to procure new hardware or software. Product marketing often tends toward hyperbole and focuses on the positive rather than the negative. With technology products, there's the added wrinkle of complex technical elements that require specialized understanding. Mix the historical hyperventilation of most product marketing with a hot technology, and you're forced to wallow through a dense wall of promises, buzzwords and claims to determine if a product will work for your organization. This is especially true in the era of artificial intelligence, where it seems everything from supply chain software to office furniture claims to have some element of AI embedded.

Over the last decade, AI, once a far-fetched theme of old-school science-fiction movies, has quickly grown into one of the most prolific emerging technologies – and, by association, one of the most recognizable buzzwords out there. Virtually every industry today – healthcare, transportation, manufacturing, agriculture, banking, retail, finance – has either implemented or is planning to implement AI in some way. And we know this because many of the companies operating in these spaces publicize their use of AI. What looks more cutting-edge than announcing your new AI-powered initiative? It's as much a marketing gimmick as it is about product and service efficiency. As with other fields, AI has surfaced as an accelerator of cybersecurity innovation over the past five years.

As an industry observer, I've watched the development of artificial intelligence (AI) with fascination. While the technology itself is developing at a breakneck pace and offers plenty of opportunity for analysis and prediction, it is the evolving industry reaction that I find most interesting. But until very recently it was primarily the purview of theoretical scientists and science fiction writers. It is only within the last few years that AI, in even modest forms, has encroached upon our everyday reality. As it has gone from fantasy to the first inklings of reality -- and that has begun to sink in -- the reaction has been instructive.

We've all heard or read about how robots are going to take away our jobs. Saudi Arabia even went as far as granting citizenship to "Sophia the robot" back in October (See the video below). With crytocurrency at the top of daily headlines, 2017 may be remembered as the year artificial intelligence (AI, pronounced AYE-EYE) goes mainstream with more organizations adopting AI than ever. Two weeks ago, we wrote about Professor Geoffrey Hinton, known worldwide as the Godfather of AI, and how his research work in the area of Neuro Net was used in speech recognition and Android voice search. Yes, we've made a lot of progress since AI started as an academic discipline in 1956.

Ask these questions to help distinguish between a promising machine learning technology and a marketing hype. Artificial intelligence, more commonly known under AI acronym, has become a very hot topic these days. Forrester Research forecasts a 300 percent growth of AI investment this year. Toyota invests $100 million in fund for AI, UBS is trying to bring AI to its investment bank's operations, while VCs frivolously dream of replacing all of us with AI to cut costs. Some people even feel embarrassed because they have never used or implemented AI in their office or home.

Artificial intelligence, more commonly known under AI acronym, has become a very hot topic these days. Forrester Research forecasts a 300 percent growth of AI investment this year. Toyota invests $100 million in fund for AI, UBS is trying to bring AI to its investment bank's operations, while VCs frivolously dream of replacing all of us with AI to cut costs. Some people even feel embarrassed because they have never used or implemented AI in their office or home. Obviously, many cybersecurity vendors leverage the term in an attempt to increase sales and impress their customers.

Artificial intelligence, more commonly known under AI acronym, has become a very hot topic these days. Forrester Research forecasts a 300 percent growth of AI investment this year. Toyota invests $100 million in fund for AI, UBS is trying to bring AI to its investment bank's operations, while VCs frivolously dream of replacing all of us with AI to cut costs. Some people even feel embarrassed because they have never used or implemented AI in their office or home. Obviously, many cybersecurity vendors leverage the term in an attempt to increase sales and impress their customers.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and its role in security was a hot topic at last month's RSA Conference in San Francisco. But some cold water was also being thrown on the growing tendency of vendors to use AI, especially machine learning, as marketing hype. AI indeed "moves the needle," Zulfikar Ramzan, the RSA chief technology officer (CTO), said at the conference. But, he added, "the real open question to me is how much has that needle actually moved in practice?" To cut through the marketing hype, it is necessary to understand the real capabilities and limitations of artificial intelligence in security.