siliconindia | | July 20178IN MY OPinionALGORITHMIC COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE ­ THE NEW CORPORATE WEAPONBy Amitabh Ray, Managing Director, Ericsson Global Services Ericsson is a global leader in delivering ICT solutions. The company has customers in over 180 countries and comprehensive industry solutions ranging from Cloud services and Mobile Broadband to Network Design and OptimizationI n the end there will be two kinds of organizations, those which are powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and those which have been left behind to wither and fade away; it's called the algorith-mic competitive advantage. If you're thinking that this is far off into the fu-ture, let me tell you that the future is right now. From influencing who you vote for, to where you would like to travel this summer or which stocks to invest in, AI has become inexorably entwined in our lives and it has been happening for quite some time now; let's say since 1914. The enhanced use of algorithms is certainly happening at a stagger-ing pace. In an example from the fi-nancial world, a venture capital firm now has an algorithm sitting on its board of directors. Hong Kong-based Deep Knowledge Ventures appointed an algorithm as a director in 2014 so it can vote on whether the VC fund should invest in a certain company or not. Deep Knowledge Ventures' al-gorithm-director analyses data from sources such as clinical trials, finan-cial records and previous funding rounds before casting its vote. The power of AI and its subset Machine Learning is sweeping across all industry verticals, disrupting ways or working, processes, jobs, profes-sions and our lives. Whether it is talking to Siri, choosing a product to buy online, riding a diver-less vehicle, or using Google Maps to find our way in a strange city; AI has become ubiq-uitous. At times we don't even realize that AI is silently guiding us through our lives each day, influencing, cox-ing, cajoling or simply directing us to take certain decisions. From our health to our education, relationships and financial fortunes, AI has an influence in everything. It is therefore imperative for businesses to understand and leverage AI, Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) to stay relevant. AI will be and is already being used to sharply define customer preferences, design prod-ucts, launch new services, enter into collaborations, foray into new mar-kets backed by solid research, helping in mergers & acquisitions and reshape organizations. Our skills and compe-tencies in AI will determine whether we succeed or fail. The business case of Algorithmic Competitive Advantage is compelling as the sheer volume of information and data being churned out is impossible for human managers to process and take decisions
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