AI will play an essential role in technology in 2023 and beyond. 2022 was a benchmark year for AI: businesses from all fields and industries adopted the technology for various uses, like natural language processing and advanced chatbots, text-to-image generators, document processing, and even business decision-making based on data analysis that leads to better customer experience and more.
AI continues gaining traction and will have disruptive applications in all sectors. Therefore, it would be a mistake to ignore the AI trends of the year.
"For those who have the right talent to embrace it, advancements in AI can provide businesses of all sizes with a distinct competitive advantage," said Dell Technologies Ireland vice-president and MD Jason Ward.
Furthermore, Dell Technologies Inc. founder, chairman, and CEO Michael Dell highlighted the importance of technology built for AI in an interview on CRN at the beginning of the year:
"We should be thinking about and working right now on how we build our systems, first for machine intelligence, then for the other applications and uses out there."
These remarks by Dell's leaders are enough to motivate decision-makers for businesses in every niche to consider adopting AI models and technologies. And, while 2022 can be regarded as the year when AI became more affordable and available for the public, 2023 will see explosive growth.
Statista valued the global AI market at 142.3 billion US dollars at the beginning of March 2023, predicting that this number would grow twentyfold by 2030, up to nearly two trillion US dollars.
AI-generated Content
AI-generated content will take the Internet by storm in 2023. Already in 2022, generative AI produced human-like written content and images using machine and deep learning programs and algorithms. Some examples include ChatGPT, DALL·E, MidJourney, etc.
- ChatGPT hit the market in November 2022 as an advanced conversational AI chatbot capable of answering follow-up questions, admitting its mistakes, challenging incorrect premises, and rejecting inappropriate requests. ChatGPT uses a generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) language model, fine-tuned over an improved version of OpenAI's GPT-3, GPT-3.5.
- MidJourney is an AI-powered software that uses advanced algorithms to produce unique images based on specific criteria and parameters. A free downloadable version of MidJourney for Windows allows users to input criteria - color, composition, and subject - in plain text. Then, the AI will generate unique, personalized images in just a few seconds.
- DALL·E can create original, realistic images and art from a text description, combining concepts, attributes, and styles. Creators can also start from an original photograph, expanding it beyond the original canvas to generate new compositions. DALL·E can also edit an image based on a natural language description, adding, or removing elements "while taking into account shadows, reflections, and textures."
- You can try text-to-image AI-generated images free online on StableDiffusion at stablediffusionweb.com - an interface based on the LAION 5b model data.
- DeepComposer uses generative artificial intelligence technology and machine learning to enable developers to create original songs in seconds. It has a virtual keyboard in the AWS DeepComposer console, pre-trained sample models, and a community where developers can learn and exchange ideas.
- Amazon Polly uses deep learning technologies, Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) tags, and lexicons to deploy text-to-speech-activated natural-sounding human voices in dozens of languages. With Polly, you can convert written content to speech and distribute it in standard formats like MP3 and OGG.
AI-human Collaboration
AI can go beyond machine learning, mimicking the human mind: it can learn from experience, understand, and respond to text or spoken queries, make decisions, and solve problems. AI is trained to interact with people; however, it can also be trained to reach a certain level of self-awareness. Until AI can make decisions without human input, it cannot properly function without a human perspective—this is why AI-human collaboration is essential and a trend that will continue beyond 2023.
Gartner defines human and AI collaboration as augmented intelligence: "a design pattern for a human-centered partnership model of people and artificial intelligence (AI) working together to enhance cognitive performance, including learning, decision making, and new experiences."
Collaborative AI or augmented intelligence has applications in many fields:
- Healthcare and pharma: helping healthcare professionals (HCPs) provide better care through sample collection automation and restocking hospital supplies. Collaborative AI could also assist in surgery, injury recovery, support for the elderly or disabled, etc. Currently, digital biomarkers collect data and deliver health insights, detecting diseases, tracking patient recovery, and assessing the effectiveness of medical treatments. "In the future, digital biomarkers could enable preventive care even before symptoms of disease present themselves. This could not only help with early identification of a medical condition before it starts to interfere with a person's lifestyle, but it could even help prevent further progression of the condition," said Shwen Gwee, Vice President and Head of Global Digital Strategy at Bristol Myers Squibb in a Forbes interview.
- Digital and emerging technologies: AI will play a pivotal role in digital transformation across all sectors. AI will supplement human talent without replacing it, as a human perspective is still essential in building, training, and monitoring AI. However, there is a shortage of AI talent, and companies worldwide struggle to hire for AI-related positions. In 2022, 80% of the respondents of a survey by Statista said their organization found it exceedingly difficult to hire AI specialists.
- Agriculture: AI sensors can collect product-in-use data, which can optimize the role of drones for seed planting, fertilizer and pesticide applications, lighting, and hydroponics.
- Cybersecurity: While businesses can use AI as a safeguard against cyberattacks, cybercriminals can still use AI technology to target critical infrastructure industries like energy, healthcare, education, etc. Using AI to protect users, devices, and data will be a core trend and focus for organizations worldwide and 2023.
- Automotive: Lyft and Motional introduced self-driving vehicles - a fully driverless all-electric robotaxi service in Las Vegas. As self-driving cars will become a reality all over the world, governmental regulations will be in place to ensure automated vehicles are safe: "Europe is making sure that this technology improves our citizens' daily life, and that the automotive industry has a predictable and safe framework to continue rolling out innovative technology solutions and maintain its global competitiveness," said EU commissioner Thierry Breton. As self-driving vehicles will be introduced on the market, only 1500 fully driverless vehicles per carmaker model will be registered and sold each year.
- AI risk assessment: EU will push forward its Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA) launched in 2021. The EU expects its initiative to become a "global standard, determining to what extent AI has a positive rather than negative effect on your life wherever you may be." AIA stipulates the legal framework for four levels of risk: unacceptable risk, high risk, limited risk, and minimal risk. Under AIA, organizations must use high-quality training, validation, and testing data, ensure transparency, provide users with information, and ensure human oversight of the AI system.
2023 marks a year of significant growth for AI. At the same time, adopters must educate themselves on what AI can or cannot do. For example, AI is excellent at collecting and categorizing data, while humans can apply the data in problem-solving depending on context and nuance. Adopting AI in business can be a valuable tool; however, the collaboration between AI and humans remains crucial now and in the future.