MAY 201919 CXO NSIGHTSIS AI TRANSFORMING YOUR BUSINESS? RETHINK WHAT'S POSSIBLEThe world is currently at the start of a seismic technological shift that occurs every 25 years or so, when business and technology architectures change at the same time, often transforming entire industries. For example, the production of microprocessors in the early 1970s enabled the invention of the personal computer about a decade later, which provided computing power at the fingertips of business people. In the 1990s, the World Wide Web led to the invention of new ways of selling and doing business over the Internet. What we call cloud computing today started out as network-centric computing two decades ago. Now smart devices attached through the Internet to massive cloud data centers have spurred digital businesses in many industries.This moment marks an inflection point in the next era of business and technology. Today, enterprises are re-making themselves on platforms infused with digital intelligence to build operations and processes, which are designed to learn with intelligent systems. A company of experts whose knowledge is augmented by systems that learn.We know that data is doubling every 12 to 18 months, no matter what industry we're in. The challenge is can we extract knowledge and insights from that data, scale quickly to accelerate our learning and the quality of the decisions that we make. Think about how that will change the world.Take for example, Suncorp, a leading Australian insurer who is leveraging IBM Watson artificial intelligence technology to help their system analyze customer descriptions of motor vehicle accidents­which are often written in a conversational way, including colloquialisms and Australian slang to confidently determine liability. The new digital solution relies on Watson to conduct liability analysis and assist in fast-tracking simple claims. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is augmenting Suncorp's claim consultant's knowledge and expertise by providing data-driven insights and instilling greater confidence in their liability decisions. This not just streamlines their claims process but also helps improves the customer experience.Now, whether you're a networking company, a financial institution, a health care provider, you need to analyze and understand from disparate forms of data, most of it unstructured, and very quickly draw conclusions. I cannot think of a single industry that is not going to be not only impacted but completely transformed with this new exponential curve and with artificial intelligence. There are many discussions happening around the value and utility of AI. In fact, a recent report by MIT Sloan Management Review asserts that almost 85 percent of executives believe AI "will allow their companies to obtain or sustain a competitive advantage."BY ANDREAS HARTL, GENERAL MANAGER, IBM CLOUD & COGNITIVE SOFTWARE, ASIA PACIFIC
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