5 data trends for 2020

Companies will increase reliance of artificial intelligence and

advanced data analytics in 2020 as they seek a competitive edge.

The company of the future will make most of its major decisions with
a little help from data analytics.
From a staffing firm looking for the right software vendor to a pharma
company in search of the next miracle drug or a retailer working
to streamline its supply chain, industries turn to machine learning
and artificial intelligence to stay ahead of competition.
But the impact of these technologies will spread beyond the C-suite
and strategic decision making. Daily, workers can expect to see their
capabilities augmented by tools such as chatbots, robotic process
automation (RPA) and virtual assistants.

Digital transformation promises increased performance and greater

profits, but it also can deliver its share of disruption, from slowing
innovation to security concerns. Learn how to overcome those
obstacles and effectively transform your business.
In the artificial intelligence field, the leading cloud computing vendors
— Amazon, Microsoft and Google — see themselves as key players in
the AI ecosystem. Since 2010, these companies have led the way in the
consolidation of the AI market, acquiring companies in record
numbers each year.
The next frontier of AI awaits, as IT leaders wade through a complex
vendor market to find where true value lies, and how they can make
their investments deliver the biggest returns.
Here are trends in data analytics CIO Dive will track closely in 2020:
1. Laws, consumer rights will push companies toward
transparent AI

Privacy legislation at the local and international levels gives new

context to the responsibility companies have over data.
The first symbols of a renewed sense of obligation are the record-
setting fines levied against Google, Marriott and British Airways in
Europe. But pieces of legislation like the General Data Protection
Regulation will also impact the level of control users have over their
data's interaction with artificial intelligence.
Provisions in the GDPR require companies to offer consumers the
right to ask how AI tools make decisions about them. Consumers
can ask for human intervention in the process.
The concept of explainable AI — platforms transparent enough so that
a human expert can identify how conclusions are made — will gain
relevance in the coming year.
Explainable AI marks a next stage of human augmentation, as
transparent AI empowers humans to take corrective actions based on
to the explanations given, according to a report from Accenture.
"Within three years, we believe [explainable AI] will have come to
dominate the AI landscape for businesses — because it will enable
people to understand and act responsibly, as well as creating effective
teaming between human and machines," the firm said in its report.
2. As data becomes more business-critical, its presence expands
in the C-suite

In the current digital landscape, CIOs must strike a balance between

keeping existing systems running smoothly while finding ways to
innovate.
On their own, most CIOs can't execute the kind of overarching
changes an AI roadmap supposes, said Steve Hill, global head of
innovation at KPMG, in an interview with CIO Dive.
"Having someone who wakes up every day understanding that
roadmap, crafting and maintaining it as a living document and
working with the business and the technology to make the change
happen is so important," said Hill. "If you try to put this responsibility
[on] the shoulders of somebody who's oftentimes sweating to keep up
with the status quo, that's a mistake."
As the complexity of AI grows, industry can expect additional C-suite
roles which focus on transformation to come into the fold.
3. Beyond chatbots and RPA, automation empowers humans at
work

Augmented workers are projected by Gartner to enter the workforce

in considerable numbers over the coming years.
But before reality catches up with that prediction, AI will gradually
enter more mature stages, and take over some backend processes at
the enterprise level.
In the coming year "we'll be moving AI from what's been the initial
adoption" of chatbots and virtual agents, and moving closer to the
automation of processes, embedding machine learning capabilities
right into solutions, said Nancy Hornberger, EVP of Healthcare at
ElectrifAi, in an interview with CIO Dive.
To get there, companies will need to devote resources and time to
power those solutions.
Prep work on data is "the hardest part of moving forward with any
kind of analytics and especially machine learning," Hornberger said.
"You have to have that data prepared, tagged, have that sample set to
train the model. ... It's the hardest part."
4. Consolidation in the AI market rolls on, with cloud vendors at
the forefront

Leading names in tech leverage their coffers to bring further

consolidation to the AI market. Since 2010, a list of acquirers, topped
by Apple, Google and Microsoft, bought 635 AI startups.
Expect consolidation to continue as appetite for third-party providers
grows. Companies will eventually spend half their resources on third-
party services, said Hill. Currently, two-thirds of investments are
internal.
"We're just now seeing the AI as a service market emerge," said Hill.
"That's going to start playing a much larger role in how incumbents
acquire the capabilities they need to leverage AI."
5. Count on more AI disillusionment

How high is the expectation bar for AI? The limit does not exist.
Business leaders expect AI to boost workplace satisfaction. They want
direct impact on business efficiency by 2022. After an AI-related
acquisition, they expect to see revenues rise.
And yet, a quarter of companies say half their AI projects have missed
the mark. In the year ahead, managing expectations around AI is key
to avoiding a mismatch between projections and reality.
"Despite a seemingly unending barrage of headlines in 2019, 2020
won't be the year AI changes the world," said Sudheesh Nair, CEO
of ThoughtSpot, in an email ot CIO Dive. "In fact, 2020 is shaping up
to be a tough year for AI with people getting disillusioned with the
distance between marketing and reality."
One thing we can expect is companies to invest in the data
frameworks needed to make AI work.
"Companies will continue to invest in infrastructure that can handle
AI capabilities and a rash of APIs to connect data together to train and
feed algorithms," Nair said.

By : Roberto Torres