The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has impacted businesses and lives across the globe. However, it has not reduced the impact of artificial intelligence on our day-to-day life. A study suggests that 77 percent of the gadgets that we use every day have AI built into them.

In fact, the use of AI by organizations has increased even more during the pandemic. Artificial intelligence is being deployed across diverse business functions such as manufacturing, sales and marketing, logistics, supply chain management, tax and finance, customer support, operations, cybersecurity, and many others.

A global study conducted by PwC has shown that in 2020, more than 70 percent of businesses in India have implemented AI in various functional areas. The travel and hospitality sector was at the forefront in AI adoption (89 percent), followed by telecom, media and technology, and healthcare and pharmaceutical companies.

The McKinsey State of AI published a survey in November 2020 which mentioned that more than half of the organizations have embraced artificial intelligence functions in different processes. 

Here are the AI trends that would be a part of our life in the future years. These trends reflect the real potential of artificial intelligence and what AI can do.

Reinforcement learning (RL)

• It is a subfield of machine learning and an application of deep learning.
• It functions on the experiences and the consequences of outcomes rather than being taught how to do something.
• Reinforcement learning is used to solve intricate problems and challenges in the real world and make decisions as well.
• RL has the potential and capability to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of data and information.
• RL is being successfully used in industrial automation, robotics, optimizing content, controlling aircraft, automated parking, YouTube recommendations, and manufacturing motion-control robots.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

• Robotic Process Automation is a software technology that enables software users to create robots that are capable of learning, mimicking, and then executing various business processes.
• The automated robots observe how humans carry out digital actions and then are able to perform them on their own.
• The use of software bots developed using RPA helps organizations in getting more speed and accuracy.
• It can streamline different business processes, thus resulting in more effectiveness and reduced costs.
• It saves valuable time for employees since they can focus on performing other important tasks and leave the tedious tasks to the robots. 

Data structuring

• With the help of artificial intelligence, unstructured data can be converted into structured form.
• Data structuring can be effectively done by using machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP).
• Using structured data, organizations can make use of RPA (robotic process automation) technology to automate several tasks.
• RPA is one of the rapidly blooming areas in the field of software technology.
• The only challenge with RPA is that it can use only structured data form.
• By using AI, unstructured data can be transformed into structured data, making things easier for organizations.

Conversational AI

• Conversational AI also known as AI-powered chatbots takes customer experience to the next level.
• Conversational AI solutions help to achieve automation in customer support for different businesses.
• AI-powered chatbots function using ML and NLP technologies to offer an interactive experience similar to human beings.

AI for cybersecurity

• The increasing use of digital data poses a greater threat to phishing attacks and hacking.
• The numbers of incidents related to cybercrime are increasing drastically.
• The use of artificial intelligence and other disruptive technologies will help keep a check on cybercrime and detect chances of vulnerabilities and malicious attacks.
• Any type of suspicious transactions and digital activities will be detected by AI, thus improving cybersecurity.

In addition to these AI trends, some other applications to watch out for include:

• AIoT (Artificial intelligence + Internet of Things)
• Edge computing
• Natural Language Processing
• AI Ethics
• Collaboration of AI with cloud solutions
• AIOps (Artificial intelligence for IT operations)

With the advancements in technology, new trends in augmented reality are coming up really fast. These trends will make our life even more comfortable and improve the productivity of businesses and organizations across the globe.