Entering the AI Era: 7 AI Trends to Watch in 2023

For some time now, hype around artificial intelligence has been growing. In the last few years, concepts like “AI” and “machine learning” have become increasingly mainstream. Most people are already encountering various forms of machine intelligence in their day to day life.

We’re interacting with chatbots for customer service, creating images with Midjourney, and searching for content using AI-enhanced assistants. In the business world, adoption of AI has more than doubled over the last 5 years, thanks to innovations in computer vision, natural language generation, and robotic process automation.

While, like all aspects of the technology landscape, AI investments have been impacted by an uncertain economy, interest is peaking in 2023. Solutions like ChatGPT have drawn new attention to what AI can do on a global scale, and intelligence is emerging as a crucial part of many digital transformation projects.

Today, we’re looking at some of the most significant AI trends worth watching in 2023, and in the years ahead, to help you define where to spend your budget.

1. AI Democratization: Accessible Intelligence

Until fairly recently, AI was largely reserved for companies with huge research and development funds, and large technical teams. The market was dominated by giants like IBM, Google, and Microsoft, and many smaller companies simply couldn’t get involved.

Now, however, open-source solutions are sweeping the entire technology industry. Generative modelling tools have become available to virtually everyone, thanks to Open AI. Low-code and no-code bot builders and algorithmic tools have grown increasingly popular.

New startups are also entering the AI field from a range of different environments. CCaaS vendors are experimenting with their own AI initiatives to help transform customer service. Microsoft is embedding AI technology into core parts of its productivity and communication apps.

This transformation is reducing the barrier to entry for smaller businesses and individuals looking to experiment with AI. This should mean we see a surge in innovation in the years ahead.

2. Generative AI Becomes More Impressive

One of the reasons AI has become such a hot topic in 2023, is that generative AI, and large language models are earning a significant amount of attention. Ever since Open AI released the ChatGPT bot in 2022, it seems like everyone has been talking about generative solutions.

OpenAI’s technology isn’t the only contender either. New generative AI solutions are emerging all the time, from Google’s Bard, to DALL-E. According to today’s reports, by 2030, this subsection of AI will be worth a massive $207 billion. As we head deeper into 2023 and the years beyond, we can expect these models to become increasingly impressive.

OpenAI is already working on new versions of its ChatGPT solution, and it’s collaborating with companies like Microsoft to create new generative AI apps for the masses. Many organizations are also experimenting with their own open-source large language models.

This could mean that by 2024, adoption of generative AI skyrockets, and the technology becomes a critical part of many of our daily business processes. It’s already making its way into coding and development workflows, creative marketing strategies, and customer service campaigns.

3. Heightened AI Industry Regulation and Ethics

As AI makes its way into more parts of our personal and professional lives, there’s likely to be an increased focus on regulating how this technology is used. Governments around the world are currently in the process of establishing frameworks for AI governance, and companies are becoming more concerned about how they use AI to harness and leverage data.

The European Union has increased its AI regulation efforts already, and many countries are discussing standards for how future AI models should be trained. However, there’s a lot of work still to be done. As powerful as AI is, it can also be used for nefarious forces with relative ease.

The advanced abilities of some tools, such as facial and speech recognition, could be exploited by criminal entities, leading to increased risks for businesses to address. At the same time, concerns around AI bias and similar issues has lead to an increasing focus on “ethical AI”.

Many AI researchers and programmers don’t fully understand why their programs work the way they do, making these systems vulnerable to misuse. Researchers suggest that many groups have been concentrating more heavily on championing “explainable AI” in recent years. This is likely to continue as the technology grows more commonplace.

4. AI Improves Cybersecurity

While there are certainly security and privacy threats to be aware of in the AI world, it’s worth noting that intelligence can also contribute to better security standards in today’s software-focused world. The use of AI systems in security strategies could mean companies can access more effective ways of detecting and mitigating threats before they cause damage to customers.

Already, innovative tools exist which allow companies to monitor potential sources of risk in real-time, and automatically notify technical experts of issues. AI can also help to secure our personal identities with biometric technologies. Facial scanning tools and voice printing technologies are becoming common in the customer service world.

AI solutions will also be able to assist with security in other ways. For instance, analytical tools for classifying and cataloguing data will be able to ensure the right information is stored, managed, and redacted in business environments, without as much manual effort.

Threat detection tools using predictive AI could even help companies to prevent criminals from gaining access to systems in advance.

5. Increased Collaboration Between AI and Humans

Though many experts and business leaders see the rise of AI as a positive thing, there have been some negative responses to the evolution of this technology. In a world where AI-enabled systems can generate award-winning art and write movie scripts, some human beings are beginning to worry that their roles and skills may become obsolete.

Research already suggests that many roles will be eliminated by AI-driven automation and generative tools. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the role of the human being in the business world is over. Just like many of the technical revolutions that came before it, AI will eliminate some jobs, and create others. We’re already seeing countless new AI-driven roles emerge in the job market.

Additionally, it’s worth noting that many of the innovative AI tools available on the market today are designed to augment, not replace human workers. For instance, tools like ChatGPT can help creative writers to produce content, but it’s up to them to edit the content and make it unique.

Solutions like chatbots in the contact centre can help to address some common customer service issues, but they still can’t deliver the empathy or expertise offered by a human agent.

Most experts agree that there’s still immense value in keeping the human element of the AI/Human interaction intact. The chances are the AI tools of the future will be designed to optimize and improve human productivity, not remove people from the picture.

6. AI and the Metaverse

Alongside AI, the metaverse has become one of the most popular topics over the last couple of years. Presented as an enhanced digital landscape, where people can connect with experiences and other individuals through virtual environments, the metaverse has made a lot of noise.

AI has the potential to bring concepts from the metaverse into reality. In the contact centre environment, companies are already using AI to create virtual assistants that customers can interact with using headsets and augmented reality apps. In the development world, companies are using generative AI to create non-playable characters for VR games and entertainment.

AI is also one of the core components used in the industrial metaverse, forming the foundation of essential digital twins. Through AI, companies can create virtual models of people, processes, and objects in the physical world, and use them in a variety of simulations.

For instance, Germany’s BMW group is using the Nvidia Omniverse AI solution already to integrate data from various design and planning tools in real-time, to create simulations of a specific setting. Staff from different time zones and sites can then access this space to plan and optimize parts of the production process on-demand, without the need for physical travel.

7. Hyper-Personalization Driven by AI

In today’s competitive landscape, consumers are searching for ever-more personalized and relevant experiences with customers. Companies like Gartner consider hyper-personalization to be one of the most important trends business leaders will need to adhere to in the years ahead. AI gives businesses from all industries access to the insights they need to deliver more personalized experiences.

With AI solutions, companies can rapidly collect data about customer behaviours, journeys, and expectations, and use these insights to deliver more effective sales, marketing, and service campaigns. Contact centres can even analyse customer sentiment, or use real-time insights from AI bots to deliver personalized recommendations to customers.

In the entertainment world, AI is already playing a significant role in influencing how we interact with content. Virtually everyone is aware of Netflix’s AI algorithm, which pulls data about customer’s viewing habits into a database to suggest what they should watch next.

The Evolution of Artificial Intelligence

Today, artificial intelligence is one of the most powerful tools in the world, and it’s growing more innovative and impressive by the day. New algorithms and AI models are constantly emerging to shape how we interact with customers, companies, data and content.

As the world continues to digitally transform at a breakneck speed, there’s no doubt that AI will play a significant role in our future. If you’re ready to explore the benefits of AI for your business, or you want to take advantage of some of the latest trends, use our comparison matrix to track down some of the most intuitive companies in the market.

Alternatively, if you need help funding your AI initiative, reach out to UC Advisor today to learn more about our straightforward transformation fund.