Artificial intelligence might seem like a far-off, futuristic concept. But in reality, it’s here and it’s now. We were delighted to speak on this topic at EB Live last week, discussing how AI is being used for health, in business and, what the opportunities are for supporting employee health and wellbeing. Read on for the full story.
How is AI changing our everyday lives?
Artificial intelligence can be defined as, ‘the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages.’
What does this actually mean? Well, it’s likely you will have heard of one of these examples. There is Amazon’s Alexa that can tell you a joke, add items to your shopping list, and turn on your lights. The Nest thermostat that will program itself based on your daily routine to help you become more energy efficient. A Tesla car can drive itself. Netflix will give you recommendations on what you might like to watch next. AI is already a very real part of our everyday lives.
How are we using AI for health?
Just last month Apple announced its latest Apple Watch model. Billed as the ‘must-have health companion,’ it comes with the first-ever built-in ECG. It can warn wearers of abnormal heart rhythms associated with serious medical conditions. Pretty amazing for a wristwatch.
Artificially intelligent solutions are also rapidly becoming an important part of the healthcare system. We are already seeing these technologies being used for:
- Decision making: Recognising patterns to identify patients at risk of developing a condition due to lifestyle.
- Early detection: Scientists from Japan have developed software to detect early stage colorectal cancer with 86% accuracy. This type of cancer is often difficult to locate, so early detection is critical.
- Accurate diagnosis: An AI system developed by an international team can diagnose skin cancer more accurately than dermatologists, detecting cancer in 95% of images of cancerous moles and benign spots - where dermatologists are accurate 87% of the time.
How are we using AI in business?
Current use of AI goes even further than this. Forward-thinking businesses are employing AI tech for a number of tasks:
- Recruitment: Mya is an AI chatbot equipped with natural language understanding and generation. Mya will initiate the conversation with an applicant, assess them for basic role requirements, and generate a shortlist of candidates. It’s an always-available contact for prospective employees. It claims it can save 75% of the time by streamlining these steps.
- Training: Zoomi detects learning patterns and behaviours to understand an individual’s learning style and tailor training to it. It claims it can improve productivity by more than 60% and increase engagement by more than 45%.
- Employee feedback: Glint is a system that provides short anonymous surveys to gather employee feedback. It uses machine learning, natural language processing and predictive analytics to interpret feedback in an unbiased way and identify key areas for improvement.