Top 2021 AI Trends To Look Out For

Top 2021 AI Trends To Look Out For

In this modern era, we’ve developed different algorithms and machines, that our ancestors could only ever dream of. However, even until now, we haven’t fully mastered the technology of AI. There are still many areas of AI that individuals have to understand better. Fortunately, research into AI has accelerated recently.

With the hope of improving customer satisfaction and productivity and also to decrease the danger of bad investment, several businesses invest in machine learning and AI. With the recent developments, emerging trends have been strengthened, while new ones that promise to have a good impact on the new future have been created.

2021 AI and machine learning trends

1. AI democratization

Up until now, AI has only been available to tech giants and startups, and they have left the remainder of the world far behind. That’s definitely going to change. As per the research, the democratization of AI are going to be a dominating trend in 2021. It simply implies that more organizations will put more effort into making AI tools accessible.

The more popular AI tools will become, the more data they’ll collect. In addition, that will help to make AI products more accurate. What’s more, AI will become cheaper, and because of that, it’ll become obtainable even in sectors that haven’t been able to afford using it thus far. Organizations benefiting the general public, state schools, and healthcare facilities could fully benefit from it and also get an opportunity to become far more effective in their operations.

However, before that can actually happen, businesses must act responsibly. They further need to put extra effort into training employees at all different levels, not only the technical staff, so that everybody can benefit from using the technology. Moreover, this will help to reduce the effects of AI illiteracy that could become an enormous problem within the labor market of the future.

2. AI industrialization

AI democratization won’t make it without AI industralization, which is the trend of actually making AI products reusable, scalable, and, simply speaking, available for the masses. A

The future of work is that about 82% of frontline IT staff believe that more companies developing AI will share their technology as low-code products, according to a report. For their own benefit, the AI pioneers that have been developing AI technology, will become educators. They’ll be assisting smaller players make use of AI tools that are already existing. In effect, fewer organizations will have to build AI solutions from scratch, which will speed up AI adoption within the market.

3. Robotization

The pandemic highlighted the requirement for workers’ safety. Which further sped up the robotization trend that has been visible in many sectors already. Machines can perform many tasks for humans like helping businesses and institutions improve efficiency and to assist maintain social distancing efforts. Take, for instance, Walmart and Amazon. Companies like these have been using robots to sort and pack products and to clean spaces. Since the pandemic started, Chinese hospitals have actually been using robots to measure the temperature of patients entering the complex and to disinfect the buildings.

The police have started using a robot dog created by Boston Dynamics named spot in order to monitor the volume of traffic on the streets as well as remind pedestrians about pandemic restrictions, in Singapore.

The use of machines in various sectors will speed up the manufacturing processes, reduce the number of workers who have to physically turn up at work, and let businesses avoid downtime during lockdown.

4. Occupation transformation

There’s absolutely no doubt that technology improves human productivity. However, it can completely take over a job performed by a human in several cases. A report predicts that by 2030, there’ll be up to 375 million individuals who will switch their occupation because of the adoption of automation. Should we actually be afraid that robots will steal our jobs? Not necessarily.

While several jobs will be lost, many others will also be created. The researchers estimate that by the end of 2030, there’ll be up to 365 million new jobs created due to growing incomes and consumption. People will become richer and will further consume more goods and services. Furthermore, this will actually create new jobs in emerging markets and countries that manufacture and deliver them. The industrialization of AI will also create a demand for specialists who can implement AI technology and educate people on exactly how to use it.

5. Responsible AI 

Businesses and governments will pay more attention to the ethics with the increased use of AI and machine learning. Over the past 10 years, we at tromenz learning have observed many cases of AI bias and discrimination.

For example, Compas is an AI system that has been utilized by the American court system to forecast which defendants could re-offend. Additionally, black offenders were more likely to become recidivists than white defendants, as predicted by the algorithm. That wasn’t true. According to the data that was initially provided to Compas, the algorithm developed an incorrect model and was thus misclassifying black defendants.

As time goes by, more and more employees, customers as well as investors are now expecting business to further address the ethical issues that surround AI and to make the technology much more explainable as well as transparent. Companies will even have to decide to what extent they’ll hand their responsibilities over to algorithms. Should those particular algorithms be able to make choices for humans, or should they simply just provide some advice? If a blunder or mistake really happens, who should be liable for it? This pressure will, sooner or later, make governments create regulations which will make sure the fairness of AI and its accountability.

6. AI in Healthcare 

In 2021, AI and machine learning will even be put into service within the healthcare industry. In order to improve treatment efficiency and plan budget, hospitals have already been using. However, they’ve been doing more than that, too. Scientists from MIT and Harvard used machine learning in order to measure the impact the pandemic had on mental health of people in the year 2020. 

They tracked and analyzed over 800,000 Reddit posts with the help of algorithms to check if there were any changes in users’ tone as well as language. The results showed that the number of threads about suicide and anxiety over doubled during the lockdown compared to the same period of the preceding year.

The researchers say that, in the near future, similar analyses could help psychiatrists learn more about different mental illnesses and ways people demonstrate them. What’s more, forum moderators could use it to further identify users who might urgently need help. By doing so, they may connect with these users and contact them with specialists that may help them.

Machine learning and AI have proven to be useful in drug discovery, too. A biotech company, Deep Genomics, has already used it to find a genetic mutation that causes the Wilson disease. It’s a serious disorder that causes the accumulation of toxic levels of copper within the body. The Deep Genomics’ discovery will help to create better therapies and shows that AI features a huge role to play in medicine.

7. Cybersecurity 

The wider utilisation of AI will bring several new opportunities. At the same time, it’ll make hackers and cybercriminals more efficient. Recent cyberattacks have shown that cybercrime may be as difficult to stop as the pandemic itself. Medical facilities are especially susceptible to hacker attacks because the sensitive data they store sells well on the dark web.

On top of that, there are a lot of tools that facilitate cyberattacks, which make them quite easy to commit, even by non-advanced coders. And due to that, organizations will need to use additional resources for cyber programs so as to prevent attacks. Businesses will be more likely to mitigate the risk of attacks by completely monitoring their websites using pattern recognition.

8. Chatbots and voice assistants 

Lockdowns have made many companies go online, which increases how much they spend on customer service. This has accelerated the adoption of chatbots. Data shows that just in March 2020, the weekly use of chatbots rose 426% compared to January 2020. All in all, the trends show that customers actually want to contact brands with their mobile phones and exactly when they’re on the go. As chatbots integrate with various communication platforms, they’ll help businesses meet these expectations.

Quite a similar trend is also applied to voice assistants whose growing popularity is mostly driven by younger users. The younger generations prefer hands-free conversations, and that’s why they’re more likely to experiment with voice technology, as opposed to older users. Majority of consumers are very eager to use voice assistants to handle simple tasks like ordering pizza. However, when it comes to serious shopping or making a complaint, consumers still choose to do it via channels they already know and trust.

Conclusion

Some individuals even say that AI is changing their lives significantly similar to the ways the electric lightbulb did back in the days. Once we get accustomed using it, we can’t imagine living without it. There’s nothing wrong with that. The important thing is that now the people liable for creating AI technology should do their best to make it transparent, ethical, explainable, and accessible. Only in this particular way will societies equally benefit from AI and therefore narrow the gap between people who grow thanks to AI and those who are left far behind. For more information contact Tromenz learning or visit our website.