What You Need to Know About Artificial Intelligence

Guest blog originally appeared in GenieBelt.

Computers and artificial intelligence will support specialists and managers. Artificial intelligence can solve problems quite differently than a human individual. Even the developers of artificial intelligence do not entirely understand why the software has chosen a particular solution.

Go is a board game from the Far East. Go is played on a 19×19 lined gameboard with white and black tokens. The object of the game is to take more areas than the opponent player by alternately placing the tokens on the gameboard. Go has the reputation of being the most difficult board game in the world.

A year ago Google’s AlphaGo beat the world champion from Japan. To understand why the software has made a particular move, a Go master has been hired. This master had the task to explain to the programmers why the software might have made a specific movement. Some of the moves had never been made by humans before because they seemed senseless. This new approach, which is no longer comprehensible to a human being, will sooner or later affect business decisions. Artificial intelligence can evaluate available data to a recommended strategy.

According to a survey by Crisp Research, artificial intelligence is an essential subject for small and large companies.

64 percent of the interviewed companies are interested in machine learning. One-fifth of the respondents use machine learning already in their daily business processes.

Now it is the right time that you obtain information about possibilities of artificial intelligence so that you are not dependent on your competitors!

What is machine learning?
Most people associate machines and robots of famous Hollywood productions with artificial intelligence. But artificial intelligence is not just a dream of the future: we are already in contact with self-learning software in our everyday life, without knowing it!

Cellphones

If you ask your language assistant for directions, your question is forwarded directly to a data center. This data center is contacted daily by millions of people. From the collected data conclusions are drawn which generate your response.

Spam filter

An email spam filter is trained to detect unwanted messages. Because of your behavior in the past, the computer can correctly identify an unknown email as spam.

To give you an impression of the current state of development of artificial intelligence, we would like to introduce you to AIVA. AIVA (Artificial Intelligence Virtual Artist) is able to create something that Richard Wagner calls “the language of passion”: MUSIC!

AIVA is an algorithm that can compose music. By reading the notes of existing classical compositions (for example by Bach, Beethoven or Mozart), AIVA understands the concept of music composition and can compose itself. In June 2016, AIVA was the first algorithm at got a registration at SACEM (Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique).

How does it work?
The algorithm is intended to recognize a pattern in data and can act independently of human programmers. The learning process is mainly divided into “supervised” and “unsupervised learning”.

Supervised

Programmers feed the computer with known results. The artificial intelligence can thus learn to identify objects or distinguish persons.

Example: The video platform Netflix sorts their movies according to their criteria, in categories such as “thriller” or “comedy”. The algorithm has learned from experience the conditions under which a movie should be sorted into a particular category.

Unsupervised

In the case of unsupervised learning, on the other hand, algorithms recognize relationships by existing data. The typical application is to create the hidden structure and relationships between data.

Example: Netflix uses unsupervised learning to analyze the behavior of its users. By this analysis, suitable films are proposed to the user groups.

How to benefit from artificial intelligence
Technology should save time and simplify our lives. Overflowing mailboxes, full to-do lists, and constant accessibility by phone do precisely the opposite. The result: Time that could be used for sales activities is wasted!

Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence automates processes

By using artificial intelligence, time-consuming routine tasks can be taken over by software. On the one hand, your sales staff will be able to concentrate on their key tasks fully; on the other hand, there will be data available that simplify lead generation:

Up-selling

Intelligent algorithms help the sales team to address customers with suitable offers. Among other things, information about the previous purchase behavior is taken into account. The analysis of data allows the algorithm to predict the customer’s future buying behavior.

Categorization of new contacts

Algorithms use existing data of established customers to predict markets and companies that can become future customers. Companies come to the fore which would have been disregarded without this selection procedure.

Building Information Modelling (BIM)

The software presents construction plans in a three-dimensional and self-explanatory way. All information is digitally combined and accessible to all participants at any time. Artificial intelligence automatically detects missing elements and can quickly trigger an error message.

Construction project search

Anyone who knows as soon as possible of new construction projects has a competitive advantage. The manual search within the web and newspapers is staff- and cost-intensive. Building Radar uses algorithms to search 24/7 the world wide web for interesting construction projects. In this way, the building radar users are still experiencing interesting projects before their competitors.

Building Radar conclusion
The invention of the world wide web has changed our society completely like letterpress printing. Through the digitalization, our everyday life is going to be transformed and changed. Artificial intelligence will take care of our shopping, recognize diseases and suggest the best possible medical treatment. Unconsciously, machine learning supports our lives in many areas today and will reshape our working environment in the long term. The new possibilities resulting from the usage of artificial intelligence will create completely new business models and strategies in the upcoming years.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Karin is a content marketing assistant at Building Radar. Feel free to send comments to k.eisentraeger@buildingradar.com