Technology is getting smarter. Using increasingly sophisticated algorithms to analyze data and predict outcomes, artificial intelligence (AI) enables computers and devices to perform tasks that only humans could do before. With AI, they can virtually see, hear, speak, and make decisions. You may be wondering if there is a play for your ISV as these AI trends continue to grow. Keep reading.
AI Now
There is a lot of attention on where AI is heading, but pay attention to how AI is being used now to find immediate opportunities for your ISV. A common AI application that probably springs to mind is Amazon’s Alexa Voice Services. Amazon invites you to integrate Alexa into your software to provide your users with a voice interface. In addition, the Alexa Skills Kit includes resources such as self-service APIs, tools, and code samples to help you integrate your products with Alexa. A list of Alexa Skills currently includes things like asking for account balances with utility companies, checking the status of a security system, asking healthcare providers questions, and smart home applications that direct Alexa to lock the doors or turn off the lights.
AI Trends = ISV Opportunities Today
Depending on your solutions and your area of expertise, you may have opportunities to integrate with AI for applications such as these:
- Self-driving cars
- Routing, traffic control, and predicting speed and movement of traffic
- Chatbots, automated reception, and help desk
- Email spam filters and smart categorization
- Robo-readers for educational applications and plagiarism and grammar checkers
- Mobile check deposits and other banking applications that convert handwriting with OCR
- Fraud prevention
- Personalized social networks streams
- Facial recognition
- Personalized e-commerce, retargeting and remarketing
AI Behind the Scenes
Also, consider how your solution could integrate with AI for powerhouse solutions for non-customer-facing applications. An article in Investor’s Business Daily, Brent Bracelin, a KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst said, “The AI killer app has emerged: cost savings.” He said to look for AI trends to increasingly skew toward automating tasks related to human resources, finance, and accounting to give companies cost-cutting options. IBD offers current examples of AI applied for increased efficiency, such as Walmart using AI to predict demand and more accurately order stock, John Deere using AI to reduce chemical spraying volumes in farming, and Devon Energy using AI to guide drilling equipment.
AI Trends in the Not-So-Distant Future
You know the story won’t end here. Industry news if fueled with what AI could do. No crystal ball will help you definitively separate the hype from actual AI trends, but tracking investments in AI are a good indicator of what is most likely to emerge.
U.S. News & World Report recently listed their bets on The 10 Best AI Companies for AI stock. Applications these companies are developing are related to self-driving cars, optimizing internet search results, ad pricing, personal assistant software, voice-to-text, drone delivery, automated grocery store checkout, genomics and precision medicine, and the Internet of Things (IoT).
How Big is the Opportunity?
According to Statista, revenues from the worldwide AI market were 2.4 billion USD in 2017, and that number is expected to grow to 58.7 billion by 2025, with the most significant share of those revenues coming from enterprise applications. Moreover, insight-driven public companies leveraging AI applications are expected to see 27% annual growth to earn USD 1.2 trillion by 2020.
Whether you are an AI innovator or an ISV that sees how an integration with AI would benefit your users, now is the perfect time to act. How will you shape the future? 
