Business leaders and investors universally agree that Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) will transform their businesses by reducing costs, managing risks, streamlining operations, accelerating growth, and fueling innovation. The potential for AI to drive revenue and profit growth is enormous. Marketing, customer service, and sales were identified as the top three functions where AI can realize its full potential according to a survey of 1,093 executives by Forbes. To realize this potential to grow revenues, profits and firm value, businesses in every industry have announced AI focused initiatives. On average, investment in advanced analytics will exceed 11% of overall marketing budgets by 2022.

Business leaders and investors universally agree that Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) will transform their businesses by reducing costs, managing risks, streamlining operations, accelerating growth, and fueling innovation. The potential for AI to drive revenue and profit growth is enormous. Marketing, customer service, and sales were identified as the top three functions where AI can realize its full potential according to a survey of 1,093 executives by Forbes. To realize this potential to grow revenues, profits and firm value, businesses in every industry have announced AI focused initiatives. On average, investment in advanced analytics will exceed 11% of overall marketing budgets by 2022.

Digital pathology specialist Proscia has been working hard to change the current pathology narrative. The Philadelphia, PA-based company has made several moves to accomplish this goal and its most recent move is a collaboration with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Proscia builds software and has a platform for imaging workflow management that allows a pathologist in the lab to take digitized images of the glass slides the tissue biopsy sites on and move these images through workflows. The company uses its computational AI-based applications to find patterns in the imaging and transform that information into something meaningful for the pathologist. However, Proscia doesn't have a laboratory and that's where UCSF comes in, said Nathan Buchbinder, the firm's co-founder and Chief Product Officer.

But even by the usual standards, artificial intelligence has had a turbulent run. Is AI a society-renewing hero or a jobs-destroying villain? As always, the truth is not so categorical. At more than 1,000 pages, Thomas Piketty's doorstop sequel to his previous opus, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, does not disappoint. But whether it will fundamentally change the global debate about inequality is an open question. As a general-purpose technology, AI will be what we make of it, with its ultimate impact determined by the governance frameworks we build.

Go is one of the most complex abstract strategy games which involves surrounding more territory than your opponent to win the game. Lee Sedol is the world champion of the Go game and has bagged #2 position in international titles. In March 2016, Lee Sedol competed against Google's AI-based AlphaGo program and lost four out of five matches to the AI. Sedol was shocked after the defeat and said, "I don't know how to start or what to say today, but I think I would have to express my apologies first. I do apologize for not being able to satisfy a lot of people's expectations. I kind of felt powerless."

Digital twins have become one of the most talked about topics because of their promise to leverage innovation to improve design, visually enhance collaboration, and increase asset reliability and performance. However, rail is a very traditional and safety-sensitive industry, and with the backdrop of owner-operators and project delivery firms needing to work within tighter budgets, shorter deadlines, and with increased legislation, change can be slow and challenging. While the risks associated with changing a tried-and-true formula weigh heavily on the minds of those responsible, the upside is that the highly complex nature of rail networks and systems allow for the opportunity to innovate and leverage technology to change the way rail networks do business. Many owner-operators around the world have recognized the potential for digital twins in their work and have begun to explore the opportunities for applying big data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) throughout the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of rail and transit networks. What Is a Digital Twin?

It's always tempting to begin an article on AI with some form of science fiction analogy, but the truth is that the technology has been around almost as long as the genre! Some of the people reading this, like me, may remember the burst of excitement around AI in the 1980s and 90s. We've come a long way since then, and many facets of AI, especially machine learning, have become very mature. The increasing digital transformation happening within manufacturing is bringing the potential of AI into focus. International Data Corp., a technology research firm based in Framingham, MA, suggests that manufacturing companies are "at the heart of a perfect storm, both living with and seeking to exploit disruptive technologies such as cloud, big data, AI-assisted analytics and the Internet of Things (IoT), while facing increasing IT security challenges, regulatory pressures and a changing workforce".1 The explosion of big data and IoT is pivotal.

Amid shifting customer demands and intensifying competition from incumbent as well as disruptive new entrants, banks are realizing that they must be always available to their customers – regardless of the time, device or channel. Whether it is core banking operations or advanced security needs, customers expect access to the bank anytime, anywhere. Leveraging a combination of AI and RPA can help banks do just that by hyper-automating processes, to improve efficiency, enable quicker response at less cost, and ensure service consistency. After years of incremental changes in silos, it's time for banks to adopt AI and fundamentally reimagine core operations to suit the new digital reality.

The future of artificial intelligence (AI) in the insurance workplace is not one of efficiency versus jobs. As our Future Workforce Insurance Survey shows, AI will enable collaboration between technology and employees. Insurers will achieve cost savings, but growth will be a much greater benefit--and most executives expect a net gain in employment. Insurance company employees, on the other hand, expect AI to create opportunities for them and to improve their work-life balance. But there's still a disconnect.

Sixty-eight percent of consumers use some form of machine learning on their smartphones, despite not being aware of the technology's capabilities or even presence in many cases, says professional services company Deloitte in the US edition of its 2017 Global Mobile Consumer survey. Machine learning, a form of artificial intelligence, is seeing increasing use amongst many companies, because of the added benefit analyzed data can bring to a business. This increasing use means more and more consumers are exposed to AI, such as in email apps like Google Inbox, or in Facebook's news feed. This doesn't mean, however, that many realize they're using AI -- it has crept in under the radar and is now everywhere. Also revealed in the report is the Internet of Things' continued relevance, especially in the car and on wearables. In the report, consumers were asked, "Technology is rapidly allowing consumers to connect their cars/homes to the Internet.