Driving an intelligent future with AI

ARTIFICIAL intelligence (AI) is rapidly evolving from being just a science fiction staple to a tool with real-world impacts. Despite being portrayed negatively in movies - as in the case of Terminator, in which the AI-based Skynet system was out to exterminate humans - AI in reality provides businesses with a competitive edge.

Rapid advancements in technology have put AI within reach of everyman: Apple's Siri, for example, leverages AI to learn about the user's preferences over time to provide more accurate suggestions such as recommending the time to order your coffee so that you can get it as you pass by your regular cafe on the way to the office.

The increased accessibility to AI also spells good news to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In the guises of machine-learning, bots and other intelligent forms of automation, AI provides a spectrum of services such as easing data processing, presenting users with decisions, and educating a "machine" to act on those decisions. In fact, SMEs are in a better position than large corporations when it comes to taking advantage of some of the ways AI will reshape the business as they are not constrained by sunken infrastructure costs.