Technology is the future of human lives. Over the years, advancements in this field have continued to reshape the world we live in, and it’s not stopping now.
As breakthroughs in artificial intelligence are announced every day, AI has burst onto the technological landscape in all industries, from retail to finance to manufacturing.
Increasingly, people find themselves interacting with AI tools every day. The rapid growth has led to many questions -“Will our new companions take over the world?” “How will humans and machines get along?” “What will happen when businesses rely on AI?”.
Here you’ll find the most interesting artificial intelligence statistics from 2021.
What Is Artificial Intelligence?
Artificial intelligence is the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence.
The term “artificial intelligence” is applied when a machine mimics “cognitive” functions that we associate with human minds, such as “learning” and “problem-solving”.
In the last 3 years, the most common uses of AI were:
- 77% predictive machine learning
- 70% regression for machine learning
- 69% classification
The top 3 machine learning techniques used were:
- 71% deep learning
- 69% clustering
- 63% spatial data analysis
How Are Consumers Using AI?
AI is one of the most important innovations of our lifetime, and it’s changing the world we live in.
Pegasystems, a leader in customer engagement software, carried out a global AI study to measure consumer attitudes toward AI and their opinion of how AI is used in customer experience. The study questioned,
In which situations would you be comfortable with a company using AI to give you better customer service?
“By 2025, as many as 95 percent of all customer interactions will be through channels supported by artificial intelligence (AI) technology” – Microsoft
Pegasystems also revealed ”˜How much do consumers really know about artificial intelligence?’
- More than 70% of all respondents confidently said that they understand AI.
- Only 34% of respondents think they have interacted with AI technology in the past, however, when asked about the technologies they use in their daily lives, they found that 84% had used at least one AI-powered service or device.
- 40% agree the future of customer service looks brighter with AI in it.
- 38% do not believe AI delivers the same or better service than humans today.
- Nearly 80% want to chat with a human online, not with a machine.
Sven Feurer, senior director of engineering and operations at SAP Customer Experience said,
“AI has the potential to help brands connect with customers on a more personal level, thus increasing loyalty and securing trust not just for now, but post-pandemic as well.”
How Is AI Used In Business?
AI has been making strides in business management, and companies are integrating these capabilities into their workflows to create smarter solutions. Businesses across the world are recognising the potential of AI and investing time and money into testing and researching its capabilities.
The benefits of implementing artificial intelligence into your company’s operations are advancing, such as increasing customer retention, streamlining processes and boosting employee performance.
Nearly a quarter of businesses have increased their spending on AI since the start of the pandemic 2020, and 75% plan to launch new initiatives. According to Cybercrew:
- By 2024, global spending on AI is expected to reach double.
- 26% of UK citizens said that they trusted AI to provide correct information.
- AI startups have raised 19.6 billion pounds between 2011 and 2021.
- Just 22% of the people working on artificial intelligence in the UK are women.
- The UK economy could grow 10.3% by 2030 solely as a result of the AI sector.
- The UK is one of the top 5 AI-powered chatbot-using countries in the world.
What are the benefits of using AI in business?
- 84% of businesses that use AI currently say it’s enabled their business to gain or maintain a competitive advantage. (Source: Forbes)
- 80% of business and technology leaders say that AI creates jobs and enhances productivity. (Source: Business Wire).
- 51% of CEOs say that they primarily want to use AI for long-term growth. (Source: Harvard Business Review)
- 36% of CEOs say that their companies’ main goal is to free workers by automating tasks. (Source: Harvard Business Review)
What are the concerns around using AI within a business?
- 47% of CEOs say a barrier to AI initiatives is that cognitive projects are difficult to integrate with existing processes and systems (Source: Harvard Business Review).
- 40% of CEOs say that the cost of technology and expertise is a barrier. (Source: Harvard Business Review)
- 77% of CEOs say that AI and automation will increase vulnerability and disrupt business practices. (Source: PWC)
- By 2022, 85% of AI projects will produce erroneous results due to bias in the data, algorithms or groups responsible for managing them (Source: The Enterprisers Project)
How Is Voice AI Being Adopted?
The voice technology we all know and love as Siri, Cortana, and Alexa (to name a few), is becoming more powerful and capable every day.
The use of virtual assistants has become a key component of the smart device industry, and technological advancement of the industry is a natural part of businesses growth as more look for bigger and better uses of “smart” technology. It is recorded that in 2020, there was 4.2 billion digital voice assistance in use worldwide.
According to Statista, forecasts suggest that by 2024, the number of digital voice assistants will reach 8.4 billion units – a number higher than the world’s population.
There is an increasing demand for touchless and convenient experiences, Opus Research revealed:
- 84% of businesses are enabling Voice mobile apps as their voice-first strategy.
- Nearly 70% of consumers will replace visits to a store or bank with their voice assistant by the end of 2022.
- 18-24-year olds are adopting voice technology at a faster rate.
- 25-49-year olds are using them most often.
- 50% of respondents have made a purchase using their voice assistant, and an additional 25% would consider doing so in the future.
According to a report by eMarketer, 92.3% of smartphone users will use voice assistants by 2023 and Digital assistant usage worldwide is expected to double to 8.4 billion by 2024.
Undoubtedly, AI-powered voice technology holds the competence of changing the business landscape for good.
Advances in voice capabilities will result in highly effective and enjoyable ways to interact with technology. If the functionality continues to evolve, the user will have a seamless experience, which will foster trust, reliability, transparency, validation, and control.
AI In Recruitment
Artificial intelligence market in recruiting? Yes, indeed. AI in recruiting can read thousands of resumes a second and provide you with a pool of top candidates in a matter of minutes. It can scour job boards for keywords in a heartbeat and can match keywords with millions of people to find suitable talent efficiently.
A survey run by Korn Ferry survey shows almost 63% of talent acquisition professionals say AI has changed the way recruiting is done at their company, and more than half say that since AI was introduced, candidates are more qualified, and roles are filled in a more timely manner.
How will AI benefit the recruitment industry? According to AllyO:
- Automated recruiting saves an average of 2 days per week of recruiter’s time.
- 94% more application completion.
- 92% of candidates are satisfied with automated recruiting.
- Less than 5% of applications require human help.
- 100% of applications are served when put through automated recruiting software.
Research firm Absolute Market Insights indicates the market for AI recruitment platforms will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7.6% through 2027.
The evidence of growth is encouraging, with 56% of companies reporting that they plan to adopt AI in the next year, while 24% of companies currently use it.
AI In Healthcare
AI’s potential to improve healthcare is growing every day, as research reveals insights into applying this technology to clinical decision making, predictive modelling, population health management, virtual support, and more. For example, the automation of administrative and clinical tasks using AI could significantly reduce the costs of healthcare and increase productivity.
AI systems will soon be able to provide predictions that are as accurate or better than clinicians, which could allow for early intervention in the treatment process, improving health outcomes.
“The UK government has said it wants AI and data to “transform the prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of chronic diseases by 2030”.
The advancements within the healthcare industry were evident during the pandemic. In 2020, chatbots and virtual assistants were instrumental in the fight against COVID-19.
They helped doctors quickly route patients to the right department for diagnosis, and Apple’s Siri now walks users through CDC COVID-19 assessment questions.
The Government is opening five centres dedicated to exploring and developing the potential of artificial intelligence technology in healthcare, based in London, Glasgow, Leeds, Oxford and Coventry, with each centre specialising in a particular area.
The first round of the AI in Health and Care Award has supported an amazing 17,000 stroke patients and over 25,000 patients who suffer from diabetes or high blood pressure, where £50 million was given to 42 AI technologies.
As with the NHS, the chances of you having a consultation with an AI instead of your doctor are slim. The aim isn’t to replace the work of health care professionals but to help them save time by automating or streamlining tasks and providing the opportunity to spend more time on patient care.
The Government announced 38 new pioneering artificial intelligence projects to help revolutionise care and accelerate diagnosis, including:
- an AI-guided tool to help doctors and nurses to diagnose heart attacks more accurately
- an algorithm to fast-track the detection of lung cancer
- an AI-powered mental health app to help tackle symptoms of anxiety and depression while also identifying people experiencing severe mental health difficulties
- tech to help spot undiagnosed spinal fractures
Matt Whitty, Chief Executive, Accelerated Access Collaborative and Innovation, Research and Life Sciences Director, NHS England and NHS Improvement said:
“The NHS has the tools in place to become a world leader in testing and deploying new AI technologies that can improve patients’ lives and showcase the breadth of talent and ingenuity present throughout the UK across academia, industry and the NHS.”
How willing are patients to engage with robots?
According to PWC:
- 39% are willing to engage with artificial intelligence/robotics for healthcare.
- 47% of men are significantly more willing than women.
- 55% of 18-24-year-olds are most willing.
- Whilst the willingness for robots to be involved with major surgery was low at 27%.
- There are 36% still willing for them to be involved in the more minor, non-invasive procedures.
Sir Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of NHS England, said:
“So today our message to developers worldwide is clear – the NHS is ready to help you test your innovations and ensure our patients are among the first in the world to benefit from new AI technologies.”
AI In Banking
2020 saw banks expanding new services from contactless payments and digital customer services to strengthen customer relationships whilst doing everything they can to provide safe services to everyone.
Forbes states that financial services are increasing their adoption of AI to capitalise on the data from new digitally driven channels. Supporting this is the Economist Intelligence Unit research report that found 86% of Financial Services executives plan on increasing their AI-related investments through 2025.
AI has the potential to make banks more competitive, but this will only happen if they continue to use it to improve their products and services. So how will their services improve?
- Enhanced customer experience – AI develops an understanding of customers needs and behaviour.
- Prediction of future outcomes and trends – AI helps banks predict future outcomes and trends, for example identify fraud and detect anti-money laundering patterns.
- Cognitive process automation – Securing ROI, reducing costs and ensuring quick processing of services.
- Realistic interactive interfaces – Cognitive systems that think and respond like knowledgeable humans.
- Robotic automation of processes – Through Robotic Process Automation, AI reviews and improves processes
AI is a key component in the bank’s work functions, and its development continues to progress, taking care of its clients.
AI In Marketing
Various media are already using artificial intelligence in their content production, bringing a new level of sophistication to digital strategies. For example, Forbes uses a bot named Bertie, who advises journalists on topics based on their previous materials as well as headlines and images.
Marketers who take AI action have the opportunity to create a significant competitive advantage for their businesses. We discovered AI enables marketers to:
- Accelerate revenue growth
- Create personalised consumer experiences at scale
- Drive costs down
- Generate greater ROI on campaigns
- Get more actionable insights from marketing data
- Predict consumer needs and behaviours with greater accuracy
- Reduce time spent on repetitive, data-driven tasks
- Shorten the sales cycle
- Unlock greater value from marketing technologies
How are Marketers currently using AI?
- 70% of high-performance marketing teams claim they have a fully defined AI strategy
- 56% are planning to use AI and machine learning over the next year.
- 36% of marketers predict AI will have a significant impact on marketing performance.
- 32% of marketers and agency professionals are using AI to create ads, including digital banners, social media posts and digital out-of-home ads. (Source: Advertiser Perceptions)
- Disney is applying AI modelling techniques, including machine learning algorithms, to fine-tune and optimise its media mix model.
- 41% of marketers say that AI and machine learning make their greatest contributions to accelerating revenue growth and improving performance. (Source: Drift Insider)
- Starbucks set the ambitious goal of being the world’s most personalised brand by relying on predictive analytics and machine learning.
- 63% of B2B marketers are interested in using AI to identify trends. (Source: Everstring)
- 59% of B2B marketers expect AI to help identify leads. (Source: Everstring)
How Is AI Used In Education?
Today, AI technology reads the emotions of a child at a particular time, helping teachers to deal more effectively with students and improve the learning experience.
A survey reveals teachers’ precious time is wasted completing paperwork, such as grading tests, papers and homework.
- Teaching (43%)
- Planning lessons (13%)
- Marking tests (11%)
- Doing administrative work (7%)
However, this can be reduced thanks to AI by planning lessons through configurable software that can create lesson plans, process marking, personalised learning, virtual learning and online exams.
AI in the education market will reach £4.21 billion by the year 2025, according to Market Research Engine.
What Is The Future Of AI Usage?
AI is taking the world by storm. It is touching every aspect of human life and transforms it for good. The pace at which technology is moving ahead, we are yet to see the better of it.
The possibilities of AI are limitless. We have a lot of control over the kind of future AI will have and how it will influence our choices and actions. There’s no way to predict how this technology will behave, but it has the potential to become the single most influential human innovation in history.
It’s safe to say that with the appropriate safeguards, humanity will be able to reap the rewards of AI while at the same time not fearing that humans are being replaced by robots or computers.
According to Semrush Blog, The forecasted AI annual growth rate between 2020 and 2027 is 33.2%.
“Artificial intelligence is impacting the future of virtually every industry and every human being. Artificial intelligence has acted as the main driver of emerging technologies like big data, robotics and IoT, and it will continue to act as a technological innovator for the foreseeable future.”
