Data itself and the amount of it has no value, but what businesses do with it that matters. Artificial Intelligence (machine/deep learning) which is also becoming pervasive in every industry enables smarter decision-making by considering all significant aspects related to a business. The convergence of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence unlocks newer and more accurate analytical, predictive, and automation capabilities at an accelerated pace. Smart revolution: analytics, the types of augmented computing that we now encounter in everyday life such as voice recognition, image recognition, voice-guided navigation, real-time voice translation and self-driving cars are all possible because of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence.
This diagram from UpX Academy depicts the core steps of the AI process.
Before getting to the Deep Learning / Machine Learning activities from steps 3 to 5, a business needs to have access to good, clean data. There are 3 categories that businesses can consider:
- Open Data Sources – E.g. Open Government / City, NASA, Weather, Public Census data.
- Proprietary Data that many organisations already have from their ERP, CRM, Procurement, Sales and Servicing solutions, some of which is available for sale. Because big data can be applied to every industry and business on the planet, there’s a gold rush to buy data. The US Federal Trade Commission observed nine of the biggest “data brokers” a few years ago, and said that “Just one of the data brokers studied holds information on more than 1.4 billion consumer transactions and 700 billion data elements and another adds more than 3 billion new data points to its database each month.
- Context Aware Data – This is where 3rd party data sources and Internet of Things devices fit in. They can combine for e.g. weather, location, time, car and foot traffic, personal health (from wearables) and breaking news data.
When e.g. proprietary consumer purchase activity is combined with context aware data and public census data; then provided to an Artificial Intelligence engine to analyse, a business can make better predictions and create more effective campaigns targeting consumers in the future. Technology companies like Amazon, Netflix, Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft have access and are already benefiting from Big Data and Artificial Intelligence in addition to other Digital Age technologies. Brick and mortar businesses need to transform themselves and become Digital Businesses to survive and benefit from the latest advances.
References:
Big Data – What it is and why it matters
Every single Machine Learning course on the internet, ranked by your reviews – by David Venturi
AI & Big Data Analytics : Three Innovation Drivers – Sarvesh Kumar
Looking along the horizon for the “smart” sea change in IoT, by ReadWrite Labs
Article written by Zaid Mahomedy.
Zaid Mahomedy is certified Enterprise Architect and Mixed Reality Entrepreneur with over a decade of experience as an IT consultant, Enterprise & Solution Architect; Digital Content Creator and Influencer. Zaid is available to consult to companies on how they can adopt disruptive technologies to transform themselves so that they can thrive in the Digital Age. For more info, check out www.immersiveauthority.com