Information technology (IT) and business leaders are often confused about what Artificial Intelligence (AI) can do for their companies and are challenged by several AI misconceptions. “With AI technology making its way into the organisation, it is crucial that business and IT leaders fully understand how AI can create value for their business and where its limitations lie,” says Alexander Linden, research vice president, Gartner. The IT research and advisrory firm has identified five common myths and misconceptions about AI.
Myth No.1: AI works in the same way the human brain does
AI is a computer engineering discipline. In its current state, it consists of software tools aimed at solving problems. While some forms of AI might give the impression of being clever, it would be unrealistic to think that current AI is similar or equivalent to human intelligence.
“Some forms of machine learning (ML) —a category of AI—may have been inspired by the human brain, but they are not equivalent,” Linden says. “The rule with AI today is that it solves one task exceedingly well, but if the conditions of the task change only a bit, it fails.”
Myth No. 2: Intelligent machines learn on their own
Human intervention is required to develop an AI-based system. The involvement may come from experienced human data scientists who are executing tasks such as framing the problem, preparing the data, determining appropriate datasets, removing potential bias in the training data and—most importantly—continually updating the software.
Myth No. 3: AI can be free of bias
Similar to humans, AI is also intrinsically biased in one way or the other. “Today, there is no way to completely banish bias, however, we have to try to reduce it to a minimum,” Linden says.
Myth No. 4: AI will only replace repetitive jobs that don’t require advanced degrees
AI enables businesses to make more accurate decisions via predictions, classifications and clustering. These abilities have allowed AI-based solutions to replace mundane tasks, but also augment remaining complex tasks. With the advancement of AI in the workplace, business and IT leaders should adjust job profiles and capacity planning as well as offer retraining options for existing staff.
Myth No. 5: Not every business needs an AI strategy
Every organisation should consider the potential impact of AI on its strategy and investigate how this technology can be applied to the organisation’s business problems. “Even if the current strategy is ‘no AI’, this should be a conscious decision based on research and consideration.
And – as every other strategy—it should be periodically revisited and changed according to the organisation’s needs,” Linden concludes.
