Echelon - November 2017

Reaching for AI

Following years of promising and not delivering, AI has not firmly arrived. From responses to email, voice recognition, and cars that identify traffic signs, AI is part of everyday life for many people who don’t even realise it.
Its stealth arrival and total dominance by large tech giants like Google, Facebook and Amazon have surprised even the tech firms. To build the next generation of products, some of Sri Lanka’s top tech firms are deploying algorithms and even developing new AI algorithms to establish a competitive advantage.

For any emerging tech industry, AI poses a challenge because of its vast application and potential, contrasted by the lack of talent and resources to enter tech’s inner sanctum. For regular businesses, AI is even more daunting.
One reason for the sober thinking may be that, for many non-tech managers, AI remains a futuristic concept. Building a business case for investment in AI is not straightforward when senior management lacks a clear understanding of AI and machine learning, and the concepts behind them. It’s encouraging that some tech firms are showing the way by their initiatives.