Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now seemingly everywhere. It’s in the news nearly every day: self-driving cars, the latest ChatGPT release, algorithms that accurately predict equipment failures or select stocks for your 401k, behind-the-scenes software that completes your text sentences for you. It’s inescapable and will only become more so in the years to come.
Many grandiose claims are made each day about how AI will make all our lives better: less manual work; more timely, accurate outcomes; even a 21% increase in U.S. GDP by 2030. So why are only about a third of companies actively using the technology today?
AI is an extra set of hands, enhancing employees’ ability to do their jobs, enabling them to react better and faster. As an added bonus, by automating many previously-manual tasks with AI, organizations are now able to make more efficient use of their human resources, redeploying workers to activities that generate greater value.
“I think at the moment everybody believes AI is just ChatGPT,” says Avathon’s Director of Global Channel Partnerships, Robert McDermott. “But it really covers a much broader spectrum than the generation of text and imagery. It’s just that a lot of customers don’t know where or how to get started. Sure, it’s on the lips and in the minds of every business executive, every board member, but where do you use it? How do you apply it to actually make money?”
Visual AI beefs up crisis management efforts
One application that has garnered a great deal of attention in recent years is visual AI. When used in combination with closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras, these purpose-built applications enable computer systems to automatically capture and instantly extract meaningful information from photographs and video imagery, training machines to understand the visual world in much the same way humans do. And the breadth of potential value creation enabled by visual AI technology is as vast as the industrial world itself: facility security, product quality, employee safety—the list is endless. Precedence Research predicts that the market for AI-enabled computer vision applications will reach $275 billion by 2033 ($93 billion of that from the U.S. alone), with a CAGR of 31.8% from 2024 to 2033.
McDermott sees visual AI as a “very practical” application of technology that has created a buzz across myriad industries in recent years—especially energy, aerospace and defense, retail, and manufacturing. They know that AI can help, but leaders of these organizations need to be shown the true capabilities, and the ROI, of AI-based technologies. McDermott characterizes visual AI as a “belt and suspenders to the human element of crisis management” and says that at the root of it all, the technology enables a more rapid and informed response than would be possible without AI.
“Visual AI gives individuals the exact right information they need, in near real time, to make critical decisions,” he says.
When integrated appropriately with a company’s existing systems, AI-enabled visual technology can provide real-time insights that allow users to understand and act upon whatever is happening in their environments. Leading companies are using visual AI today not only to identify current or incipient issues, but also to anticipate challenges, mitigate risk, repair problems, and decide upon next-best actions once a current issue/situation has been resolved.
“We now have the ability to future-proof organizations against unexpected leaps in technology,” McDermott says. “It’s no longer just the latest expensive high-tech system that you’re going to have to replace in a few years. With our AI-powered visual solutions, we’re committed to helping companies evolve from being reactive to proactive to predictive, delivering greater value at every step in the process.”
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