Artificial Intelligence, once a fictional concept, powers our highly automated world. Over the past century, society has brought AI to life in the interest of productivity. We’re driven by the need for convenience . We want the things we want, fast and easy. It’s no wonder we want our things to work smart for us.
Companies like Google and OpenAI are pushing the envelope and revolutionizing what machine learning can achieve — and what humans can do with it. The ultimate goal is to improve overall quality of life. Therefore, we use AI in areas that could use it most, such as weather forecasts, healthcare, navigation, and manufacturing.

What to look out for in 2019

Robots will become better listeners.

NLP, or natural language processing, makes AI assistance carefree and conversational. “I’d like to…” “I wonder…” “Schedule a meeting…” As NLP becomes more sophisticated, you can speak to AI assistants as you would to a human.

Data privacy will be a priority.

2019 will see a steady movement towards “transparent AI.” AI allows for the collection and analysis of staggering amounts of data. As the tech gets better and better, policies must keep up. Automation and big data, while helpful, pose risks for data privacy. As a result, companies are required to evolve with the times, comply with data transparency laws, and update their privacy policies.

Good news for the workforce.

For 2019, more jobs will be created than lost because of AI — particularly in education, healthcare, and the government. Human work is needed more than ever while AI helps boost productivity by taking care of repetitive tasks. As AI grows, more professionals will be needed to help deploy the tech and expand their services. Other industries like finance and manufacturing, however, will indeed lose workers to automation.

How to adapt your business to today’s AI-driven world

1. Utilize niche marketing

It’s the best time to optimize your ads to target a very narrow demographic, and thereby get more leads. Intelligent, curated feeds mean that users will see mostly relevant content. The ads they see are based on their browsing activity, recorded preferences, past purchases, language, and location. Don’t be afraid to get into the specifics; meanwhile, search engine AIs take care of where your ads are seen.

2. Use a chatbot

While you can never completely take the human element away from customer service, people do appreciate automated answers to simple concerns. You can use chatbots for guided DIY troubleshooting or instant replies to keep your customers engaged. Consider customer service solutions like Aivo, Botsify, or Chatfuel.

3. Automate eloquence

Tools like Gmail’s Smart Compose and Grammarly can help you compose emails with the utmost professionalism. Advisory AIs like Legal Robot help you go through lengthy legal documents, enabling you to minutely understand your contracts. They also assist in creating comprehensible, layman-friendly agreements that your clients will appreciate.

4. Get a personal assistant

Can’t get a handle of your schedule? Personal assistants like Amy, Andrew (both of x.ai) or Clara can help you set up meetings, put them in your calendar, and even handle changes in your schedule like true pros.

Consider your needs and your options, and weigh the ROI for each situation. With the right application, AI-powered tools can help lower costs and keep many functions in-house, which is great for preserving brand identity.
There’s a lot more to AI than we’ve outlined so far: sentiment analytics, augmented reality, machine learning and more. Already, it’s present in our daily lives in more ways than we can easily pinpoint.
It’s in your curated Spotify, YouTube, and Netflix feed. It connects you with the nearest Uber. It helps you smart-catalogue large photo albums. It’ll even alert you to unusual activities in your bank account.
To many, the concept of AI may sound like something out of pop culture, like Skynet or Frankenstein’s monster. But the simple truth is AI has been here for a while, consequently shaping the world we know today. The best next move? Utilize countless available tools to help ourselves and each other.