The Evolution of AI: Trends to Watch in 2023

Over the past decade, every major industry has found a way to wield the incredible power of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their output. From marketing to cybersecurity and even Wall Street, AI has been toyed with in every which way, leading to seasons of trial and error and eventual discoveries of best use cases for leveraging this technology.

The limitless opportunities of AI, ranging from conversational marketing to AI-based product suggestions, have opened the doors for investors and tech enthusiasts to realize the untapped potential of AI technology and its ability to revolutionize sectors.

Using the AlphaSense platform, we’ve searched through our vast universe of expert calls and earnings transcripts to see how company leaders and industry insiders forecast AI integrations in the coming quarters. As we enter the first few months of 2023, C-Suite leaders across a number of industries are prioritizing workflow improvements, streamlining communication operations, and more effectively reaching target audiences.

This demand to overcome these industry-specific yet universal challenges is widespread, which is why innovators are thinking (and spending) big to learn how AI could be a solution. Below, we’ve compiled the strongest growth areas or use implications of AI in 2023—the scope encompassing everything from improving corporate online security to improving working conditions.

Building Trust in Artificial Intelligence

The quick rise of artificial intelligence and its adoption in thousands, if not millions, of operational processes over the past decade has paved the way for an AI-driven future.

According to McKinsey, AI adoption has more than doubled since 2017. Further, IBM’s 2022 Global AI Adoption Index stated that 35% of companies have implemented AI in their business, while another 42% are reportedly “exploring AI.” The same McKinsey survey also found that 56% of respondents had adopted AI in at least one function in 2021—a 50% increase from 2020.

Despite the argument around AI’s necessity in business, companies that have integrated AI-based practicescontinue to see higher financial returns than their non-AI-oriented competitors. In fact, companies that adopted AI at its earliest inception continue to invest heavily in scaling their AI development—setting them at the forefront of a growing, competitive market.

Alibaba, the world’s largest e-commerce platform, uses generative AI to predict what customers might want to buy. Their natural language processing (NLP) automatically generates product descriptions for alibaba.com. Apple programs AI and machine learning into their products (iPhone, AirPods, Apple Watch, etc.) to enable innovative features like FaceID or their smart assistant Siri.

And there’s no mention of AI without IBM, which has been at the forefront of artificial intelligence for the past 20 years. Its Project Debater, the tech corporation’s latest AI endeavor, uses a cognitive computing engine that competed against two professional debaters and formulated human-like arguments.

It’s no coincidence that these leaders have taken significant strides to invest in AI. In a study published by Research Reports World, experts predict the artificial intelligence market within the accounting industry will expand at a CAGR of 40.41% in the next four years, reaching a $5222.47 million evaluation by 2027. Similar forecasts are slated for a myriad of other industries, leading to a gold rush for companies and AI inventors alike.

Commercializing AI

While AI, overall, is gaining global traction, it’s important to understand there are various forms of artificial intelligence. The most common types are artificial narrow intelligence (ANI), artificial general intelligence (AGI), and artificial super intelligence (ASI).

All three have distinctions in how their functions mimic human intelligence and behavior. However, ANI is potentially the most common form of commercial AI, as it powers Apple’s Siri and Tesla’s autopilot.

ANI is commonly implemented to address use cases in predictive analytics, text-to-speech, image recognition, human-like chatbots, machine vision, natural language processing (NLP), expert systems, robotics, and planning or optimization problems. Or otherwise, very specific, well-defined use cases.

Artificial intelligence has proven to be beneficial for business owners and consumers, but the capabilities and functions of AI depend on a few variables that directly correlate to its value. The effectiveness of any AI software depends on good quality data that also protects users against risks unique to artificial intelligence and, most importantly, your understanding of its capabilities and functions (i.e., what AI can and can’t do for your business).

Artificial Intelligence Areas of Opportunity for 2023

Cybersecurity

Tech leaders like IBM have been continuously investigating AI’s role in cybersecurity. This has led IBM (and their competitors) to discover how its application extends beyond detecting and identifying abnormal patterns and vulnerabilities within extensive networks. Beyond AI, this process was a time consuming task for humans. Now, analyzing and monitoring data from multiple endpoints has become a more straightforward and faster process so that any detection threats can be eliminated before an attack is executed.

Moreso, AI is suited to assess risk and improve threat intelligence. By identifying, analyzing, and evaluating risks, AI can recommend strong security controls, leading to automated security models and, consequently, stronger organizational firewalls. Additionally, pertinent operations can be automated, so that response times to attacks are faster while alleviating the pressure off of human analysts for handling complex security tasks.

“[Companies like Darktrace] created is this form of machine learning or AI that essentially detects abnormal in any of your environments, whether that be network, endpoint, or email. Their systems don’t have to know this attack per se, but they just know it’s abnormal to your environment. They’re able to reinforce normal by detecting it and then using another product to then reinforce normal.”

“One of the challenges that you see in the cybersecurity industry is that companies will have siloed defenses. They might have one vendor for email and one vendor for network detection and response. One vendor for an endpoint. Some companies like Darktrace are really trying to sell themselves as this all-inclusive solution.”

– Prior Sales Lead at Darktrace | Expert Call

Machine and Human-Worker Collaboration

Within the AlphaSense platform, we noticed C-Suite leadership focusing on how AI adoption not only streamlines manufacturing processes by performing repetitive, unfulfilling tasks through automation but also creates safer environments for workers. This capability has become a selling point of AI amongst manufacturing leaders who’ve experienced operational cost reductions.

Certain AI systems can detect and prevent workplace hazards and even take real-time action to improve said environments. By mitigating risk and accidents, AI reduces workers’ comp insurance payouts.

“Over the last few years, we’ve seen firsthand how critical the frontline workforce is to business continuity. So we’ve continued to innovate and deliver new products like scheduling and labor optimization. These products leverage AI at their core, and we can generate things like the optimal shift schedules that match worker preferences with business constraints in Workday HCM and finance and even third-party systems.”

– Workday, Inc. | Transcript

“Our model is safety-centric with minimal human-to-machine interaction, leveraging digital technologies, AI, robotics, and sensors not only improves worker safety and labor efficiency but also allows us to collect real-time intelligence by providing process simulation, production optimization, and asset tracking.”

– Novelis, Inc. | Q4 2022 Earnings Call

ChatbotGPT

ChatbotGPT—an iteration of OpenAI’s popular GPT-3.5 language-generation software that can hold conversations with people, answer follow-up questions, and challenge incorrect premises—is potentially the most discussed AI-advancement in nearly every sector. Already, we’ve seen a 423% increase in documentation over the last 90 days. And even some surprising industries are joining the conversation like semiconductors, automobiles, and road & rail.

The system was trained on a massive set of text data, which allows ChatbotGPT to recognize patterns and, therefore, mimic text in various writing styles—presenting a window for how companies could implement the chatbot in future operational processes. But for now, ChatGPT remains free to use and shows what’s possible for large language models when leveraged with AI.

For businesses and corporations looking to take advantage of the more exclusive features of ChatbotGPT, OpenAI sells access to its underlying language and related AI models for business use.

“ChatGPT is just — it’s an amazing technology. No, it doesn’t. It has a massive amount of utility throughout the entire workflow and process of radiology. I might want to do it to learn about how an enzyme or you can ask us some interesting questions like that. I think the type of technology will have and should have a utility in health care. I’m not saying that it does today, but I think it will.”

– NVIDIA Corporation | Transcript

“And that’s the reason they go build these custom chips. They are not a semiconductor company by virtue of nature. Google is still a search company, even though more recently, they might be challenged by ChatGPT, we will see. But they’re deeply tied into their software infrastructure, right, in terms of these chips being built. So as we come along, this year is a great partner to build these chips for them, whether it’s in form of leveraging our IP, whether it’s a form of building custom SoCs or even in the future using our products.”

– Alphawave IP Group PLC | Transcript

Higher ROI with AI

While the question of whether investing in AI tools can deliver true ROI continues to fuel debates, there’s no shortage of evidence that companies who have funneled capital into artificial intelligence have experienced results.

According to Domino Data Lab’s recent REVelate survey, which surveyed attendees at New York City’s Rev3 conference in May, nearly half of respondents expect double-digit growth as a result of AI integration, with 79% believing that machine learning and AI are critical to the overall future growth of their company. In fact, 36% label it as the single most critical factor to business success.

Ultimately, ROI from AI is possible. However, it must be clearly described and personified according to one of your business goals.

“In the Q2 call, we shared that a single AI advancement in scaling our recommendations models had led to a 15% watch time gain for Facebook Reels, and that gain has continued to grow. And we expect that there will be additional watch time improvements coming from that work.”

“On the ad side, we’re also continuing to roll out more AI and machine learning improvements in some of the new ads offerings, and we’re encouraged by all of the early examples that we’ve seen. So this is something that we’ll be watching very closely.”

– Meta Platforms | Q3 2022 Earnings Call

Looking Ahead: Acting on AI

Whether you’re conducting research on how your competitors are implementing AI or searching for the next big investment in artificial intelligence, you need a tool that can help you sort through the noise and uncover opportunities.

AlphaSense leverages AI and a vast content universe (aggregating content from over 10,000 leading industry sources) to give our clients the most accurate, current insights into market activity. Start your free trial with AlphaSense today, and discover what a proactive market intelligence process can do for you.