As many as three quarters of Irish companies believe artificial intelligence (AI) will have a major impact on their industry in the coming years, with 25 per cent expecting it to completely transform their sector.
That’s according to Accenture’s annual Technology Vision 2017 report, which reports on the most disruptive tech trends for businesses.
The survey of more than 5,400 business and IT executives across 16 industries and 31 countries, including Ireland, indicates that AI is moving far beyond being a back-end tool to take on a more sophisticated role within companies.
Irish companies are seen to be particularly aware of the changing role for AI with 71 per cent of those surveyed saying they believe it will revolutionise the way they gain information from and interact with customers. Almost three quarters of those surveyed also expect AI interfaces to become their primary interface for interacting with the outside world.
However, the rise of AI is not without challenges with 41 per cent of Irish companies expecting compatibility issues to impact take-up within firms. Other potential problems cited included privacy issues, a lack of sufficient usable data and the newness of such technology.
When it comes to AI investment over the next three years, the most significant areas where Irish businesses plan to invest capabilities are in natural language processing, computer vision, machine learning, deep learning, and in embedded AI solutions such as IPsoft’s Amelia in call centre services, or IBM’s Watson embedded in healthcare diagnostics.
The research indicates that many Irish organisations are racing to keep up with advances in technology, with one in five surveyed saying their industry is facing “complete disruption” and a further 48 per cent experiencing “moderate disruption” over the next three years.
