The Next Big Thing: Artificial Intelligence as a Service
Artificial intelligence has been a concept for most of the last century. It feels truly historical as much as it does futurist. It is strange. Consumers are not yet at the point of having AI robots able to open doors, bring pizza from the oven, or change the bed sheets. However, AI is in our homes. Google Nests, Amazon Echo Dot, and Apple Homepod are digital assistants using AI technology to help instil in us the potential of smart homes. But, even with it in the home now, it feels like a quiet revolution. It is almost under-the-radar. More businesses are developing this technology to expand its service capabilities. More businesses are using these services. Artificial intelligence is still, largely, a promise. One that is yet to fully transform how we live our life. But what it is doing, is making processes simpler and more efficient in many sectors: from medical to art. It’s use as a service is where its revolution is taking place, now. Here are two huge examples of AI’s use as a service.
Cloud Computing
One of the fundamental ways that AI is helping businesses of any size is via cloud computing. As AI has progressed, the technology has become cheaper. The standard which is available for less prices entices businesses to utilise AI-powered services. Cloud computing offers plenty of benefits to businesses of any size.
What is this technology? It’s software cloud-based, which means that there’s no download necessary to utilise services. It is accessible for any device which has the internet. This flexibility is huge in today’s market where the demand for smartphones to be capable of fulfilling essential business functions is high. There are a number of services available with this technology, notably ones which utilise AI. For instance, there are integrated IT services and support systems which have AI perform many manual and repetitive tasks which lessens the workloads on employees, enabling them to focus on value-creating projects. Customer relations management services offer the same automation.
Speech to Text Transcription
Speech to text transcription is another AI service. Businesses like Verbit have flexible programmes which can fulfil a variety of transcription tasks. For instance, there is the more ‘basic’ task of transcribing pre-recorded audio or video files. A business would upload their file to Verbit, who would run that file through their AI, which would then transcribe it.
The AI is capable of differentiating between speakers – accounting for dialect, accent, and language – and, also, has extensive enough vocabulary and knowledge of usage to understand colloquialisms and differentiate between homophones.
One keen use is live captioning. As more and more media enables anyone to livestream whatever they want to from anywhere in the world and at any time, being able to have captions for differently abled people and non-native speakers to access the content is essential for many creators and people. Charli D’Amelio and James Charles will spontaneously go live and, therefore, time to organise a service to provide speech to text transcription is difficult. Once this service becomes embedded in native apps, it will be revolutionary and inclusive.