AI has been a buzzword in many industries for quite some time. With more familiarity surrounding this term, businesses are becoming aware of the benefits of the use of this technology.

From those working in robotics to data analysts at media intelligence agencies, AI is here to make the lives of employees a whole lot easier, and the technologies only continue to expand. Thus, in order to keep up with how these developments can be used, it’s important to stay up to date with the latest trends.

Here, Focal Points looks at five AI trends to look out for in the new year:

1. The combination of the Internet of Things and AI

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the connection of physical devices to the Internet. For example, your mobile phone is one of the many IoTs as it can be physically connected to the Internet. Considering that these devices make use of intricate and advanced technologies, it only makes sense that these devices will be paired with AI in the new year.

How will they be paired? Well, it will become more common for people to have smart homes. “Smart home devices like Nest (Google's application) will gain popularity,” says Rida Nasir in an article for ThinkML.

“According to an estimation, 28% of the US homes will become smart homes by 2021. It will resultantly boost efficiency to achieve the next level.”

Additionally, more AI applications will be making use of field agents to identify errors in other machines. This will make these technologies more accurate and reliable.

2. Natural language processing is on the rise

The popularity and use of natural language processing (NLP) is on the rise, and will only continue to do so in 2021.

“The use of NLP will increase in 2021 for sentiment analysis, machine translation, summarising a process, auto-video caption generation and as chatbots,” says Nasir.

This technology is used by mammoth businesses, such as Amazon and Google, as well as smaller organisations including media intelligence agencies, such as Focal Points.

So, what’s so great about NLP? Well, media analysts use this technology to:
  • sort through their client’s data and media coverage in order to gather the information they need to compile easy-to-read, compact narrative reports.
  • produce analysis reports that are statistically correct.
  • see whether an article portrays the client in a negative, positive or neutral light.
Considering the various uses of this AI tech, it’s easy to see how it will continue to expand in the new year, with its many uses becoming more advanced.

3. Robotic Process Automation

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is essentially the technology that automates mundane tasks, leaving room for people to focus on more exciting projects.

In the media industry, RPA has streamlined the process of content creation, as bots can be used to “track trending news online, and then automatically create top relevance posts.”

“The above-mentioned metadata updates can also be leveraged for content preparation for Subscription Based Video on Demand (SVOD) services.” This is according to CiGen, an RPA solutions agency.

As you can see, convenience has become a massive trend in the AI-sphere, as more companies are utilising this technology to reduce the need for monotonous tasks normally performed by people, saving the business time and allowing them to refocus their energies on more meaningful work.

4. Reinforcement learning

Reinforcement learning is an experienced-based technology that improves on a continuous basis. The systems are fed various different conditions that direct the tasks that it needs to perform.

These tasks are entirely self-learned and are reinforced as positive results are received; this process continues until the system is able to achieve a final result.

An example of this type of technology is chatbots, which make use of reinforcement learning and machine learning to answer queries from consumers.

“Machine Learning development companies can add sequential conditions in chatbots by using reinforcement learning. It will make them more productive and helpful in getting more sales and transferring calls to the relevant department,” says Nasir.

5. AI-powered data analysis

In 2021, more people will start to understand the impact of AI-powered data analysis, particularly in terms of how it can boost business performance. This technology allows businesses to extract only the most relevant data at a rapid pace, allowing humans to focus on the storytelling aspect of their client’s business.

For instance, Focal Points uses AI technology — such as machine learning and NLP— to decrease the amount of time it takes to compile reports.

While this technology does all the hard labour, these analysts are able to focus on the narrative side of reports, which tells the story behind the data.

For more information, visit www.focalpoints.co.za. You can also follow Focal Points on Facebook, Twitter or on LinkedIn.