By Chris Heineken, CEO, Atrium

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Analytics in 2020 and Beyond

We have seen the artificial intelligence (AI) hype cycle begin to run through the business world, but the reality is there has been a high failure rate of AI projects. As we look at the year ahead of us and beyond, much work will be put toward continuing to improve the success rate of AI adoption. Companies will continue to navigate this new world of AI, machine learning (ML) and analytics. As the journey continues, here are three things you can expect in 2020 and beyond.

1. The market's IQ around AI significantly increases

Currently, the average stakeholder interested in transforming their business through AI is lacking understanding of what is possible with AI. Expect to see these individuals become better educated on what AI can do for their business. Better education will help the average business consumer understand the different disciplines of AI, such as natural language processing, vision, unsupervised learning and machine learning. As companies begin to understand how these disciplines could play a role in creating 10x returns, they will also gain an awareness of the degree of difficulty associated with AI projects. While there will be short term challenges, this awareness will be the foundation needed to achieve broader success in AI adoption.

2. AI and Enterprise Software Converge 

Over the past several years there has been a popular saying that ‘software is eating the world'. In the next decade, AI will start eating the software world. It will become difficult to separate AI from standard enterprise/cloud software programs. The two will become indistinguishable. With better education and the binding of software and AI, we can expect a dramatic improvement in the success rates of AI projects.

3. Predictive / Prescriptive Analytics Become the Standard

Expect to see predictive analytics become the dominant standard for future IT investment as ‘rearview mirror' dashboarding is already as commoditized as email. Companies will be able to differentiate themselves by being innovative in how they collect and leverage data. As machine learning and data become more prominent, we can expect to see machine learning and AI models replace analytical reporting. These models will directly provide business users with prescriptive actions that can drive business change.

As we head into 2020, businesses that want to remain competitive in their respective industries need to begin exploring the possibilities of AI. Rather than waiting for the stars to align around the perfect use case, it's more important that you take your first evolutionary steps as a way to improve your organizational IQ relative to AI.

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About the Author

As CEO of Atrium, Chris Heineken leads a world-class team in empowering companies to embrace the next generation of tech through the power of AI. Prior to founding Atrium, Chris was the COO at Appirio where he was responsible for leading the company's global consulting, sales, and operations teams. Chris started his career with Accenture and later founded Bay Street Solutions, a CRM/Siebel consulting firm, acquired by Perficient. He earned his undergraduate degree from UC Davis and MBA from UC Berkeley. Chris brings more than 15 years of sales, professional services and marketing experience across solution areas that include CRM, business intelligence, enterprise integration and custom application development.