It seems that we’ve already seen more than we were ready to VR in video games, IoT in medicine and smart cities being brought to life. We are really close to living in some sort of sci-fi so it’s a good idea to have a look at the most possible and promising machine learning and AI trends for the upcoming 2018 and ask ourselves if we are ready for them.

Healthcare sector: too much going on and everything is amazing

Healthcare is one of the biggest and most crucial industries in the world so no wonder it’s the one that is heavily using the latest technologies – because it’s the matter of life and death. First of all, due to artificial intelligence and work with Big Data, a scientist will soon get the opportunity to prevent certain diseases, like cancer. This can be done by analyzing patient’s history and all their records so AI will be able to understand the mechanism of disease, thus enabling doctors to be proactive instead of reacting. Secondly, there are more and more intelligent prostheses popping up and this also offers a whole lot of opportunities for both doctors and patients. Such prostheses are able to distinguish images, light, pressure, etc. and are already a great breakthrough.

Finally, let’s not forget about AI and robots – together it makes robot assistants. They can come in many forms – virtual nurses in the smartphone that are able to recognize warning signs and call for help or real robots that can monitor patients, alarm doctors and send notifications in case there is such need.

Overall, artificial intelligence is an amazing opportunity for scientists all over the world to make the healthcare system more efficient for the medical workers and the patients. Because the chance of machine making a mistake is much less than a human making a mistake, the state of medicine will really shift to the whole new level.

Financial sector: fewer risks, more accuracy

It’s well-known that machine learning and AI are great when it comes to Big Data, analysis and routine tasks that can be performed by the machine. AI minimizes the chances of the error and is able to build predictions based on the previous data – and these predictive models are used in predictive analytics when one wants to prevent fraud or anything similar. Besides, predictive analytics may help companies minimize their risks in the future, estimate development and much more. Now, this is something any company should be interested in because it is:

• Money-saving
• Much more efficient comparing to analytics by people
• More accurate and is able to build large complex reports out of Big Data

Of course, certain processes will still be performed by people – however, the application of AI will make financial industry more stable and efficient.

Personal assistants and better experience for the customers

We all know Siri or Cortana and now it’s time to get even more personal assistants in our everyday life. The simplest of them is an example of chatbots, which are getting more complex and intelligent. Due to data analysis, the system will be able to learn everything about customer behavior and its patterns, it will also learn personal preferences and, based on all this data, the assistant will be able to offer better service.

Such assistants are perfect for marketing professionals as they will allow building stronger connection between the product and the user and will provide valuable information that can be used to build more effective marketing campaigns.

Rise of Robotics

As mentioned above, we will see the more heavy use of robots in 2018 and not only in the sphere of medicine. Intelligent drones, robots in manufacturing facilities – robotization is aimed at making our lives easier so it’s one of the hottest trends that we can expect in the near future. Even though there is a concern that robots may replace people at work, there will always be operators and those who construct these robots, so no need to panic – but might be a good idea to start learning about robotization, especially if you work in the IT industry. Summing up, AI and machine learning are dedicated to simplifying our lives and work processes and improving certain industries to our benefit. There are and will be, obviously, certain concerns (such as cybersecurity, for example) but all in all, 2018 is promising to be really exciting in terms of new technologies and their application.

And looking back at 2017 check out CBinsights AI 100 2017.