"Tomorrow will be a world where we won't need to drive, where a trip between cities will be made in a few minutes, where objects will be delivered by drones and goods will travel automatically between continents. Payments will be dematerialized, and the reality's virtualization will make professional travel obsolete." Years ago, what Richard VAN HOOIJDONK, a Deutsch futurist, said could be seen as science-fiction. But in the AI world, nobody doubts there will be a before and an after Covid-19. Indeed, it was the theme of the event "Beyond Tomorrow" organized in November by SAS, the global leader in analytic and AI solutions. Because AI, which was already successful in the business world before the crisis, proved its usefulness in this particular period.
A shorter adaptation period, a step ahead on markets
"The world constantly changes, and companies struggle to adapt to this complex economic environment. Since the beginning of the year, we are confronted with a quick adaptation to remote work, and we saw unprecedented changes in consumers' habits while numerous governments set up new regulations", Shukri DABAGHI, regional vice-president of SAS CEMEA, said. Artificial intelligence is not capable of realizing exploits we can see in science fiction novels or movies. Nevertheless, it is really efficient to analyze the weaknesses and strengths of companies' business lines in management, human resources, customer relation, or accounting. The treatment of complaints, fraud control in some sectors, screening the applicants for a job offer...
If the decision remains for humans, the treatment of those data allows the employee to win time on the decision and other tasks instead of treating data. And in a world more digital, a quick adaptation became a step ahead of competitors. The digital world also allows collecting more data, the oil of the AI." The capacity to adapt to the market's needs in constant evolution, to quickly establish analytic models and make commercial decisions based on analytic information are crucial to overcome the crisis and prosper in today's reality," Shukri DABAGHI explained. The transportation sector is a good example. Totally stopped during lockdown periods, optimization solutions and predictions to maximize operational margins became crucial. And possible thanks to AI.
"2020 didn't let companies the choice to consider the change seriously"
Considering the profits met by groups using AI, it seems it had a strong argument to reach more people. For others, delays are sometimes enormous. And if the health crisis didn't make them fall, the economic crisis could do it. "The Covid-19 virus didn't destroy a system but, on the contrary, highlighted an already broken system," Rik VERA, speaker and author, explained. "The data Big-Bang put companies that didn't anticipate into a world of uncertainties, volatility, complexity, and ambiguity."
"2020 taught us we have to adapt if we want to stay competitive. For years we talked about digital transformation and how collecting data to analyze them could help companies becoming more efficient, productive, and valuable. 2020 didn't let companies the choice to consider the change seriously," Jim GOODNIGHT, General Director of SAS, concluded. A change synonym of the beginning of "tomorrow's world."