AI and Machine Learning – The Potential to Challenge and Transform Posted on : Dec 16 - 2017

Artificial intelligence and its subset, machine learning – two topics that make great dinner talk. Why? Many businesses are already using AI, and there’s little doubt that advances in AI and machine learning will continue to change how we work. But ask any IT leader how or where that’s most likely to happen and the conversation may go on all night.

One thing is clear: Technology that’s equipped with AI or machine learning can be a powerful tool for the kinds of tasks humans just can’t master. Machines can recognize sequences in large volumes of data, identify behavior that doesn’t fit normal use patterns, or apply speech recognition to unusual applications. But they don’t have the general intelligence that humans do – which is why AI and machine learning will likely augment human skills, not replace them outright.

 “In my view, artificial intelligence and machine learning is a powerful tool, but not a replacement,” says Jessica Marie, Product Marketing Principal at White Hat Security. “It is technology that can be leveraged in order to gain efficiency and accuracy, but it’s not something that will be able to fully replace the need for human beings. Machines are great at the repetitive grunt-work that gets time-consuming. And in reality, these new technologies are (at least for the time being) best used to service and augment the work of humans – not replace them.”

So where will this augmentation happen? We reached out to IT influencers to find out—and it’s no surprise that their opinions are as varied as their backgrounds. But while their answers may seem divergent, the truth is AI and machine learning have enormous potential in many different areas. For forward-thinking companies, that represents multiple opportunities.

Enhancing Security

Security – think identifying abnormal behavior patterns to recognize fraudulent activity or predict a cyber attack – is one area where influencers see solid business potential for AI and machine learning technology.

Troy Wilkinson, best-selling author on cybersecurity and CEO at Axiom Cyber Solutions, would concur. “We use what we like to call human-guided machine learning,” he says. “The application of AI within cyber-security is still being perfected so we can’t rely on the machines to do all the heavy lifting and stop researching threats ourselves, but we can rely on automation to help us. Also, with the continued shortage of skilled cyber-security experts in the workforce, companies will need to utilize automation to be more effective and proactive than buried in the weeds and always reacting to threats.” View More