Grid Infocom

In the last decade, digital transformation (DX) has evolved massively from IT, data mining, virtual collaborations, mobile, internet to the application of new age technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Robotic automation and Intelligent Automation that are virtually disrupting the structural and organizational function of practically all businesses today. While the majority of global business leaders believe that it is worthwhile to invest in IA, companies are yet to invest as much owing to the dearth of skilled man-power, difficulty in training and skilling employees on IA and other hindrances faced due to cyber security threats and challenges of integrating IA into legacy systems, mainly due to human resistance. * 86% of global business leaders believe their organization must deploy intelligent automation in the next five years to be a leader in their field. * Consumers surveyed by Avanade in the UK, US and Germany agreed with business leaders that intelligent automation will free employees to spend more time on complex tasks while 60% of consumer respondents said that intelligent automation is more likely to replace jobs than create them.

Nevertheless, unstructured data is a business asset and if processed into a readable form could reveal invaluable insights for business intelligence by studying and analyzing patterns and trends out of the information derived. From helping companies build great customer relationships to helping in business intelligence by analyzing volumes of data to predict customer behavior and intent, machine learning is doing it all. * Machine learning has automated quality testing, increasing defect detection rates up to 90% From diagnosis in medical imaging using deep learning, to use of digital reasoning systems, treatment recommendation to preventative healthcare, machine learning is bringing in great opportunities in the healthcare industry. AI technologies are helping in customer support, billing, assisting insurance agents, giving more business leads and insights, fraud detection using predictive analysis and pattern recognition thereby saving banks millions of money.

According to Gartner, $2.9 trillion would be spent on new business and value opportunities in AI by 2021. While some experts like Musk have made speculations around the potential harmful impact of AI in future, for the most part these disruptive technologies with super-human abilities are creating far-reaching impact in augmenting existing functions in businesses, offloading the burden of work from humans and providing ease and sophistication in everyday life. With AI and Machine learning, search results have got more accurate, specific and streamlined. Search engines use machine Learning and natural language processing to understand a user query better by intuition gained through study of past search patterns.

Global spending on digital transformation technologies as per IDC study is expected to be nearly $1.3 trillion in 2018, an increase at a compound rate of 16.8% over the $1.1 trillion spent in 2017. A new report from Juniper Research has found that annual cost savings derived from the adoption of chatbots in healthcare will reach $3.6 billion globally by 2022, up from an estimated $2.8 million in 2017. New AI technologies are helping businesses get valuable insights through analysis of these data. It should look forward to provide actionable intelligence to specific businesses, encourage innovation and generate more revenue As IDC “despite the “digital” moniker, there is much more to digital transformation than just technology and this is a continuous process that requires the need to have correct technical new age solutions to specific existential business functions to boost performance and competencies of sectors.