Artificial intelligence is one of today's major disruptive forces, and we believe it will be one of the main catalyst for innovation and transformation in the coming decades.
Why is Artificial Intelligence important?
Artificial intelligence is a reality that is making people's daily lives easier, through such applications as speech recognition and automatic translation systems.
In simple terms, artificial intelligence can be defined as the intelligence exhibited by machines. It is applied when a machine, program or algorithm is capable of mimicking typical human cognitive functions, specifically: learning, reasoning, decision-making and problem solving. The concept was formally coined in the 1950s, but it is only in recent years that we have been witnessing a boom in this new technology. Why? There were two essential requirements for AI to take off:
- Development of computing capacity: increasingly more powerful, smaller and faster computers (Moore's Law: computational capacity doubles approximately every two years).
- The arrival of Big Data: data is the "food" that nourishes AI. Machines need a huge volume of data to learn.
-
>50%
Growth by IA in just 10 years through 2025, according to McKinsey
Source: McKinsey Report in the World Economic Forum 2018 -
$15,7 tn
Contribution to world GDP in 2030, which is more than China's and India's combined GDP
Source: PwC’s Global Artificial Intelligence Study -
$100 bn
Estimated volume of AI software revenues in 2025
Source: https://omdia.tech.informa.com/topic-pages/artificial-intelligence
Why now?
AI is still at a very early stage of development. We are just beginning to glimpse some of its potential. Technically, we are in a transition between what is known as "narrow IA" and "general IA":
The current phase (narrow AI) is characterized by machines using learning systems —machine learning and deep learning —and specializing in a single task, in which they are able to outperform a human.
- In the next phase (general AI), it is expected that programs and algorithms will continue to be supervised by humans but will be applied to several tasks simultaneously, with decision-making being more agile and efficient.
Source: Allianz Global Investors, oct 2018
We estimate AI could approach human intelligence within 10-15 years
-
Digitalization
2000 -
Analytics
2010 -
Machine Learning
2025 -
Human-supervised IA
2040 -
Autonomous AI
2050 and beyond
Source: Allianz Global Investors, oct 2018
In summary
Companies that cannot adapt and evolve, that are unable to incorporate artificial intelligence into their business model, could find themselves at a competitive disadvantage that could jeopardize their survival.
We believe that it is not a passing craze and that it could be one of the biggest business opportunities of the moment, with the capacity to increase the rate of economic growth in all sectors, which highlights the cross-cutting nature of this technology.
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