Introduction

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is continuously changing the future of almost all industries and human beings in the universe. AI has now been recognized as the key driver of developing technologies such as robotics, big data, and the Internet of Things (IoT). 

Moving into 2021, AI will continue to be the prime technological innovator for the foreseeable future.

Covid-19 Pandemic and Consumer Trends

The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in the year 2020 has activated a drastic revolution in consumer trends. Privacy concerns and complex security, the ethical use of AI, and the increasing impact of climate change have enabled industries to integrate systemic risk into their long-term planning.

Adoption of AI will not take place only to improve the effectiveness or efficiency of operations. Alisha Mittal, practice director with management consultancy and research firm Everest Group states that “there has been a visible shift towards leveraging AI to improve stakeholder experience owing to the pandemic.

AI trends in 2021

The top AI trends to look for in 2021 are:

AI and Machine Learning (ML) will flood new experiences and use cases.

In 2021, the most persistent and determined companies will push AI to new frontiers. This will include customized manufacturing and holographic meetings for remote work.

AI talent will remain tight.

Talent supply is projected to be the main issue associated with the enhanced adoption of AI going into 2021.

There will be more progress toward trusted data for AI. 

The year 2021 is expected to display the bad, the ugly, and the best of artificial data, which is available in two forms: fake data that disturbs training data to deliberately throw off AI and synthetic data that enables users to build data sets for training AI.

Cyber defense: AI can help

With increased connectivity there is a constant threat of data breach and cyber-attacks. However, AI  and machine-based cyber defence systems are expected to step up and prevent such issues. 

AI will slowly take over HR Departments.

Smart algorithms are expected to be used to create virtual recruitment tools to screen millions of job applications, which will in turn save recruiters valuable time and help them make decisions by offering evaluation power and unprecedented analysis.

AI structures unstructured data.

In the year ahead, organizations will utilize Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine vision to enable the structuring of unstructured data such as emails or images. 

AI and cloud will turn symbiotic.

“AI is going to play an important part in broader adoption of cloud solutions,” states Rico Burnett, director of client innovation at legal services provider Exigent.

IT pushes AI at a larger scale.

In 2020 there was a significant adoption of AI within IT organizations. These organizations are expected to begin seeing the advantages of executing their AI and ML models in the year 2021.

AI will become more explainable

AI models are expected to become more transparent. There will be a bigger focus on explainability. 

AI standards and ethics will gain focus

In 2021, expertise and alignment on how to ensure that AI is utilized against major global problems, ensure inclusion and diversity, and stimulate innovation and economic growth will be delivered.