The impact of Artificial Intelligence
Today, every company – large and small – must rethink its traditional business approaches to focus more on service than the product to survive. From 1975 to 2010 the key to success was creating new innovated product – both hardware and software. For example, Intel, Motorola, Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc. but since 2010, the business has changed from product to service and companies such as Amazon, Uber and Airbnb are perfect examples this new approach. These start-ups have grown into huge global companies.
The approach of integrating technology (Hardware and software) into customer service has created a new type of companies with minimum capital but growing incredibly fast and disrupt everything. The key factor is they know how to leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) to push their business to the next level. For example, with AI, Amazon knows what the customers want based on their search and recommend similar products to them. With AI, Uber know where customers often want to go and set up drivers ready to provide faster and better services.
Today AI is no longer something in science fiction books, but the technology that disrupts markets all over the world. Companies that have applied AI in their business reported better profits and market share. For example, Amazon, Uber, Airbnb are growing faster than most people could imagine and push their competitors out of the market. According to some studies, the global market for AI business is predicted to grow exponentially in the next ten years. One analyst wrote: “The market measures the hardware business in millions of dollars, measure the software business in billions of dollars, but with AI, many things will be measured in trillions of dollars.” For example, Microsoft and Apple are multiple billion dollars companies, but Amazon is already reaching trillion dollars and could become the largest company in the world.”
Today people are worrying that AI could change everything and destroy human’s jobs. A few people advocate NOT to use AI in some businesses or stopping its usage before it is too late. However, the purpose of business is about efficiency, productivity, and profit, regardless of these warnings, many companies will continue to use AI, robots, and automation to replace humans and increase profits. Today AI is already being applied in self-driving cars, self-service stores, and automation factories with significant results in increasing profit. A few week ago, an executive of a self-driving car company was interviewed by a TV news station. He said: “I have a 1-year-old son, by the time he is 18, he will not know how to drive a car because there will not be any car like today available. Everything will self-driving vehicles.” That is how fast innovations could change the world.
If we look back, Google is twenty years old, Uber is seven years old, and Airbnb is only six years old. How could these companies grow that fast and disrupt so many things? The reason is simple: They know how to use technology innovations to their advantage. It is predicted that in the next ten years, many “smart” start-up companies like Uber, Airbnb will emerge and impact everything. However, the fuel to these start-ups is technically skilled people, and most of the market analysts have agreed that countries that have more of these skilled people will control the world.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
