Daily Archives: April 30, 2017

Forbes

Artificial Intelligence, Viewed At Its Most Practical Level Forbes It seems everyone is talking about the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). AI and its many forms -- cognitive computing, machine learning, deep learning, analytics -- seemed poised to take over the operations of every organizations from top to bottom ...

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Artificial Intelligence, Viewed At Its Most Practical Level - Forbes

Forbes

Three Ways Artificial Intelligence Will Transform Online Shopping Forbes If you want to get a lot of retailers nodding their heads, ask them this: Are you pursuing a personalization strategy? You'll get a pretty resounding yes!. In fact, personalization already drives a lot of activity on eCommerce sites. It often ...

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Three Ways Artificial Intelligence Will Transform Online Shopping - Forbes

CBS Philly

The Implications Of Artificial Intelligence In Small Business CBS Philly The implications of artificial intelligence (A.I.) in small businesses are profound, and will sure to evolve and shape the way small businesses are conducted and handled. Currently, the technology available allows small businesses to use their existing ...

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The Implications Of Artificial Intelligence In Small Business - CBS Philly

BB&T Corp. has a well-earned reputation for being deliberate when it comes to adopting technological advances.

Thats why BB&T executives enthusiasm for plugging artificial intelligence and robotics into its back-office, customer service and compliance operations has raised eyebrows with analysts and economists.

BB&T joins Wells Fargo & Co. and other national and super-regional banks in spending hundreds of millions of dollars to pursue what they believe will be significant future cost savings from data mining of customer patterns.

We are investing in improving processing cost a big opportunity for us and frankly all banks by the use of artificial intelligence and robotics, Kelly King, the banks chairman and chief executive, told analysts during its first-quarter earnings report April 20.

We will be pretty aggressive about that. We just think there are huge ways to reduce cost in the backroom by the use of that.

Forbes magazine called artificial intelligences potential for financial institutions immense because of its broad operational reach, such as: including natural language processing (improving interactions between computers and human languages); machine learning (computer programs that can learn when exposed to new data); and expert systems (software programmed to provide advice) that help machines sense, comprehend and act in ways similar to the human brain.

According to analysts, financial institutions have been slower adapters of AI and robotics.

Yet, research firm The Financial Brand said those companies are recognizing the potential for cloud computing and machine learning algorithms, along with rising pressures brought by new competition, increased regulation and heightened consumer expectations.

They all have created a perfect storm for the expanded use of artificial intelligence in financial services, such as product delivery, risk management and marketing.

New cognitive-based solutions also enable a more pro-active and personal customer experience at a lower cost than was ever possible before, The Financial Brand said.

The group said its 2017 retail bank trend report determined that increasing use of AI and robotics was the second most popular expectation of financial institutions.

The drawbacks cited to AI and robotics are familiar ones when it comes to new technology, according to a survey conducted by Narrative Science in conjunction with the National Business Research Institute.

About 12 percent of participants said they hadnt put AI to use because they felt it was too new, untested or werent sure about the security.

King said BB&Ts use of AI is sort of in the first inning. Weve actually tested some areas to be sure that we are so comfortable with the whole concept of AI and robotics working.

King told analysts of one example conducted by Daryl Bible, its chief financial officer, that impressed BB&Ts management team.

Daryl did a test in his financial reconcilement area, King said.

We took one process where a human working with a computer took two hours to do the track and solve the process. Once we applied AI and robotics, it was only 15 minutes.

So, we are engaging some people specialized in this area to help us over time. We will learn how to do this for ourselves, but we are using outside expertise.

King said incorporating AI and robotics is a big deal.

When we get our methodology being fine-tuned, well boost up the entire company, starting with the most sensitive opportunities and then moving down.

BB&T said it plans to spend between $400 million and $500 million in capital expenditures, the grand majority frankly would be technology spends, said Chris Henson, BB&Ts president and chief operating officer.

King said the bank plans to use the cost savings from AI and robotics to invest in digital products, new markets and really keep a tight lid on the background expenses.

Thats why were optimistic in terms of longer-term operating leverage, because we will have to continue to invest in new technologies, etc., but at the same time well simultaneously reduce on the cost our traditional process-oriented activities.

Frankly, Im pretty excited about it. Its a bit early if you were to claim victory, but the concept is really sound.

Wells Fargo said its initial AI push involves launching a pilot of a customer chat experience for Facebook Messenger.

The bank has provided assistance to customers on Facebook platforms since 2009, including adopting that format in May 2016 as its main channel for addressing customers common questions and service issues.

The test involves several hundred employees before making it available to a few thousand customers later this spring.

Were very excited about the opportunity to provide more personalized services for customers, said Steve Ellis, head of Wells Fargos Innovation Group, where the companys Artificial Intelligence Enterprise Solutions team is based.

Our goal is to deliver information in the moment to help customers make better informed financial decisions. AI technology allows us to take an experience that would have required our customers to navigate through several pages on our website, and turn it into a simple conversation in a chat environment.

Wells Fargo said it plans to emphasis AI and robotics in its Payments, Virtual Solutions and Innovation group as it sees an increasing number of opportunities to better leverage data to provide personalized customer service through its bankers and digital channels.

Analysts and economists were mixed about the potential ripple effects from financial institutions increasing their use and focus on AI and robotics.

Bank margins remain under pressure and the competition from financial technology companies means margins wont return to levels seen in the past, said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst with Bankrate.com. So the pressure to reduce overhead costs is ever-present.

The consumer banking experience is becoming increasingly digital, and the organization needs to be less labor intensive to meet the demands of tomorrows customer.

Chris Marinac, managing principal with FIG Partners LLC of Atlanta, said he is encouraged that more banks are preparing to make a big splash with AI and robotics.

BB&T is very serious about this initiative; they do not mention items on the conference call without careful consideration.

This AI/robotics trend is very real in my mind and has seriously positive implications for the expense base, profit ratios and shareholder returns in the future.

Tony Plath, a finance professor at UNC Charlotte, said the AI and robotics train has long left the station, but thats true in every industry and in every advanced economy today.

Why should banking be any different?

Plath said most financial institutions have a research and development effort under way to reduce the human work force and replace it with some sort of automated delivery platform.

Human labor is the most expensive, unreliable and mistake-prone element in any product or service delivery channel, Plath said. Take out the people and you get faster, better, more reliable, more consistent and cheaper products and services.

Robotics will automate much of the back-office operations and support work of these organizations, and robo-advisors will automate the front-end of the businesses.

Talking with a human expert in any of these industries will become the exception, rather than the rule, of normal business operations.

Plath acknowledges there will be significant repercussions for the economy as more bank and credit union employees are displaced from jobs by AI and robotics advances.

Were already seeing that sort of thing in the unskilled segment of labor markets throughout the advanced economies of the world, Plath said.

Over the course of the next 20 years, it will include semi-skilled labor and then fully-skilled labor, and even advanced skilled labor, like physicians and college professors.

Plath said that technology advances, the future is gonna get here much faster than you think.

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Financial institutions turning to artificial intelligence for data mining, cost savings - Winston-Salem Journal

(Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.REUTERS/Jim Young) It's true. Artificial intelligence can be used to make better Twizzlers. And sell more underwear. And ship goods around the world. And improve a bunch of other non-digital tasks that have been around for decades or centuries.

That was the message from Microsoft last week during its "Digital Difference" event in New York highlighting a bunch of new partners that have adopted the company's digital backbone to improve their businesses. Hershey's, the shipping giant Maersk, Fruit of the Loom, and more are all on board.

If that sounds kind of boring, that's because it is. But it also highlights the budding trend of digital technology touching everything we do and how humans who used to do those jobs need to adapt to this new economy.

Take Twizzlers, for example.

In an interview with Business Insider last week, Microsoft'sCVP of DigitalAnand Eswaran explained how Hershey's is using a network of sensors connected to Microsoft's Azure cloud to adjust the Twizzler-making process and produce better results.

Eswaran said a one-point change in temperature can change the entire batch of Twizzlers, so monitoring temperature during the process can keep mistakes to a minimum.

"Now we have sensors in the manufacturing supply chain connected to Azure cloud," Eswaran said. "It knows the optimum set of conditions and constantly adjusts the temperature. The commands come from the cloud and AI on top of it is constantly learning."

But wait, isn't that kind of quality control a job humans used to do?

Yes, but it also hints at how human workers are adapting and learning new skills to work with the machines doing what people used to do.

"The role of people are going to change over time," Eswaran said. "Many different analysts say it's going to eliminate jobs. But it's going to eliminate a certain kind of job. I feel strongly that the net impact will be positive for jobs. The onus is on us and the government to train the next generation of people differently."

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The Tech Portal

How artificial intelligence is slated to change journalism | The Tech ... The Tech Portal Artificial Intelligence is slated to change our world. Indeed, many might argue that we stand on the brink of a new age of renaissance. Except that this time the ... AI: Boon or doom for humankind? | Opinion, News, The Philippine ...Philippine Star all 2 news articles »

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How artificial intelligence is slated to change journalism | The Tech ... - The Tech Portal

Artificial Intelligence is slated to change our world. Indeed, many might argue that we stand on the brink of a new age of renaissance. Except that this time the impact could be even more profound. Instead of an age that will bring about thing like mass production into fashion, we are looking at an age of robots, machines that need no instructions and that can predict and see to our desires.

Even as we speak, machines and artificial intelligence are becoming even more capable, doing things that used to be the sole domain of humans. However, would these systems really be able to breach all frontiers and cross the bridge of what makesushumans?

How do you differentiate between a robot and a human anyways. At the risk of venturing into philosophy, one might say thatcreativity,the ability to come up with something brand new and original is what sets the human race apart from machines, and indeed, despite all the advances that we have made, can a machine create poetry? Can artificial intelligence produce a fresh story? Can a robot, be a journalist?

At the risk of venturing into philosophy, one might say thatcreativity,the ability to come up with something brand new and original is what sets the human race apart from machine.

So writing is one of the jobs that have been listed assafe. And is journalism but not an extension of writing? Well, that may be true but it is no reason for us to preen our feathers and celebrate. Notwithstanding what the report says, robots are already encroaching upon journalism as well and given a few years, we might find ourselves changing our minds about whether or not they can replace human journalists. See, journalism is a job that requires skills like quick response time, creativity, the ability to sift through data and so on. An AI would arguably be better than a human at most of them.

For instance, the wordsmith software that has been developed by the Associated Press (AP), can automatically generate new stories pertaining to college sports. AP is also using the AI to generate quarterly earnings reports of corporations. And already, it is churning out up to 10 times the number of reports that human reporters were earlier generating.

So yeah, as robots get better, we can expect them to take over journalistic duties like preparing reports, press releases. On the other hand, jobs that require investigation, deep analysis like writing editorials, doing profile storiesand so on will remain the domain of humans, at least for a few decades.

It will be good for journalism in a way too, as reporters will be freed up from the more mundane, data crunching jobs and will be able to focus on the core creative aspect of their jobs.

In conclusion, we would like to draw you attention to a few attributes: such as curiosity, motivation, passion and a sense of justice. Ironically, jobs that require these human emotions, these human attributes, will remain free from encroachment by robots. However, even that wont be perpetual.

AP is also using AI to generate quarterly earnings reports of corporations. And already, it is churning out up to 10 times the number of reports that human reporters were earlier generating.

The thing with AI, and that sets them apart from all other machines and technologies in much the same way that humans are different from all other animals is their ability to take up data, go through it and eventually get better.

A few decades down the line and systems that can mimic even these emotions and maybe even generate them, who knows? may come up. That will be the time when journalists might well have to start looking for other jobs. For now though, I think I will sit back, relax, sip some lemonade and think about what I can write next.

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How artificial intelligence is slated to change journalism - The Tech Portal