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Complex Verticals and All-In-One B2B Platforms Powered by AI

By Tigran Nazaryan, CEO and co-founder of 10Web

2020 proved that everything can change in an instant. We saw the lingering effects and uncertainty left behind by COVID, particularly for companies operating in the B2C space. On the other hand, B2B platforms have been impacted far less by economic shocks and investors are taking note of that stability factor. What many of these platforms are also demonstrating is that we have only seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to AI. 

Being part of the web development industry for the last 10 years, it is incredible to see it constantly evolve and go in directions that seemed unlikely-or even impossible-just a few years ago. Paying close attention to these developments, there are a couple of key areas and industries that will be particularly impacted by the emergence of AI in the near future.

One major shift we can already see the beginnings of is the use of AI to solve more complex, or “edge” problems, rather than broad spectrum or “trendy” ones. For the latter, these are the common problems that share a common need across industries to be solved through AI, such as image processing or face recognition. There is already significant data and algorithms in place for these-and, by extension, significant competition. Alternatively, there are business verticals that focus on targeting specific segments, industries, or customers, and handle different needs. In the case of 10Web, we are specifically solving issues that agencies-our target audience-face. 

While these technologies are more difficult to build, they are also more difficult to replicate, leading to higher defensibility, and we will see the rise of startups taking AI in this direction. Make no mistake, just because the complex problems have fewer players does not indicate a lack of importance, but rather, an understandable gravitation towards solving issues that already have a lot of data, research, resources, and shared interest amongst various industries set in place. The complex problems are in a bottleneck situation, where there is little data, but the problems persist. It is essentially just a matter of who will take on the challenge.

We will also see the increased use of AI in border and intersection problems. This is when there are two different industries that share a common issue that AI solves. An example is developer tools-how to build platforms and software, and AI. Typically, most of the classic AI problems have nothing to do with developer tools, but these two industries may coincide if someone builds, for example, an AI-powered platform to write code. We’ve implemented this through our AI Website Builder, and see it as only the beginning. Another interesting example of this merge is through Rubikloud. The company’s use of AI to deliver decision automation with a Machine Learning (ML) platform not only changes the game for retailers, but also for vendors and distributors.

We can also expect to see more implementation of AI directly in mobile devices rather than Cloud servers. AI solutions usually require quite a bit of computational power, but they can become more mobile as AI can be embedded into mobile software rather than implemented somewhere in the cloud. An example of this already in action is Krisp. Krisp’s neural network, which is AI, removes background sound and echo right inside the mobile device, rather than transferring data to the cloud to eliminate the noise. Of course, there are a couple of factors to take into account, such as the processing power of mobile devices or computers, but there is a lot of potential in this sphere. We will see many more instances of AI being embedded in different types of software installed in mobile devices performing tasks that require input and output for mobile devices related to sound, video, AR/VR, etc.

These are certainly interesting times to witness, and these developments are just a fraction of what is truly possible in the world of AI-it’s now up to the startups to effectively utilize its limitless potential.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tigran Nazaryan is the Co-founder and CEO at 10Web. With a strong background in science and technology, and vast hands-on experience in web development, machine learning, and AI, Tigran is passionate about bringing automation into web development.