Marketers are expecting to see more money and resources than ever being poured into AI technology. Gil Press, a technology and innovation contributor to Forbes, suggests that “technologies will augment human intelligence to make us better versions of ourselves”, and that these technologies are “the next step in our evolution”. Such talk sounds like something out of a science fiction novel, but the technology has been growing for years and it’s not going away anytime soon. In 2018, AI will serve to make our lives easier; both in our homes and professional lives. 2017 saw many big companies such as Apple and Ikea launching a range of smart home technologies in which users could command their appliances through their mobile devices. Where AI comes in is that in the not too distant future, your devices will be able to offer you things before you realise you need them. Such technology can already be seen in applications like Spotify, who, in noticing you’re coming to the end of your playlist, will queue up songs it thinks you’ll enjoy based on your previous song choices. Smart homes mean that should you run out of milk, your fridge can order you some more.
How could you use AI?
Instead of a ‘trend’, AI will change the way we use and think about computers as much as Douglas C. Engelbart’s rudimentary computer mouse did in 1964. It’s difficult to see how AI will truly benefit businesses in the future, but for now they’re helping with more targeted and useful marketing approaches and being used to create reports in CRM systems like Salesforce. However it develops over the next year, as Ben Rossi from Information Age states, “Embracing this new technology, rather than rebelling against it, will be crucial.”
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