Large language models have dominated the news cycle, but numerous types of machine learning and deep learning with various applications exist
Examining the spectrum of AI algorithms and their applications is worthwhile amid the chatter and hysteria surrounding ChatGPT, Bard, and other generative large language models (LLMs). Many “traditional” artificial learning algorithms have been solving significant problems for decades and continue to perform admirably.
Recall that machine learning refers to a class of methods for automatically generating predictive models from data.
The algorithms that transform a data set into a model are the engine of machine learning or machine learning algorithms. The optimal algorithm depends on the problem a developer is attempting to solve, the available computing resources, and the nature of the data.
Types of Machine Learning
Machine learning can solve both non-numerical and numerical classification and regression problems. Both models are primarily trained using supervised learning, with training data labeled with the correct answers.
Tagging training data sets can be costly and time-consuming, so semi-supervised learning is frequently used to augment supervised learning. Semi-supervised knowledge applies to a much larger untagged data set, augmenting it with any predicted data using the managed learning model developed from a small tagged data set. Human-in-the-loop (HITL) review of questionable predictions can be used to improve the semi-supervised learning process when it veers off course.
While the expense of labeling the training data is the biggest issue with supervised learning, unsupervised learning frequently fails to perform well. Unsupervised learning does have some applications, including reducing the dimensionality of a data set, exploring its patterns and structure, discovering groups of similar objects, and detecting outliers and other data noise.
Reinforcement learning: A system that reduces complex images to a binary decision has significantly less potential than an agent that acquires for the sake of learning. Uncovering patterns rather than completing a predetermined task can produce unexpected and valuable outcomes.
Neural networks: This is distinct from supervised and unsupervised learning but is frequently used in conjunction. Neural networks, initially inspired by the architecture of the biological visual cortex, are comprised of interconnected, layered units called artificial neurons.
Artificial neurons typically employ sigmoid or ReLU (rectified linear unit) activation functions instead of the early perceptrons’ step functions. Typically, neural networks are trained through supervised learning.
Deep learning: Deep learning employs neural networks with many “hidden” layers to identify features. In between the input and output layers are hidden layers. The more layers a model has, the greater the number of distinguishable features.
Likewise, the longer it takes to train a model, the more layers it has. GPUs, TPUs, and FPGAs are all hardware accelerators for neural networks. Fine-tuning can significantly accelerate the customization of models by training a few final layers on newly tagged data without altering the weights of the remaining layers. Base models or foundational models are models that lend themselves to fine-tuning.
Vision models: Vision models often use deep convolutional neural networks. Vision models can identify the components of photographs and video frames and are typically trained on extensive photographic data sets.
Language models: Language models occasionally employ convolutional neural networks but use recurrent neural networks, long-term memory, or transformers more frequently. They are used for translation, grammar analysis, text summarization, emotion analysis, and text generation and are usually trained on very large language data sets.
Business Applications of Artificial Intelligence
The most common business applications of artificial intelligence and the associated benefits are as below:
AI for customer support, service, and experience
Customer experience, service, and support constitute one of AI’s most general business applications. In organizations, customer-facing uses of AI are by far the most prevalent. Chatbots, for instance, utilize both machine learning and natural language processing to comprehend customer requests and respond appropriately. They do so more efficiently and at a lower cost than human workers.
AI can use predictive analytics and data from previous purchases to recommend products to a user based on their needs and wants. Intelligent systems can also help employees provide better customer service by providing suggestions based on analytics similar to chatbots and recommendation engines. The system can suggest the next-best actions, how to proceed with customer discussions, and how to present a specifically targeted option.
AI for targeted marketing
Online search engines, retailers, and other Internet entities use intelligent systems to comprehend users and their purchasing habits to select advertisements for the product users most likely want or need. Each advertisement on the internet is placed by a computer and optimized for click-through rates.
AI also facilitates the delivery of targeted marketing in the real world. Some companies have begun combining intelligent technologies, such as facial recognition and geospatial software, with analytics to identify customers and promote products, services, or sales tailored to their preferences.
Intelligent supply chains
Across industries, AI is helping to enhance supply chain management and using machine learning algorithms to predict what will be required, when and the optimal time to transport supplies, AI assists business leaders in developing more efficient, cost-effective supply chains by minimizing or eliminating overstocking and the risk of running out of in-demand products.
Intelligent operations
As business process application developers incorporate AI-enabled capabilities into their software products, AI is becoming pervasive throughout the enterprise. AI is in all business support functions, including human resources, finance, and legal. The software uses artificial intelligence, and team members may not even know that AI is being used to enable their function.
AI, for instance, can handle many customer requests and route customer calls to available workers and those best suited to address particular needs. In the meantime, retailers are employing AI for intelligent store design, optimized product selection, and monitoring in-store activities. Some use AI to monitor inventory on shelves, including the freshness of perishable goods, in various ways.
Safer procedures
Multiple industries are utilizing AI to improve safety. Construction companies, utilities, farms, mining interests, and other entities collect data from endpoint devices such as cameras, thermometers, motion detectors, and weather sensors in remote or expansive locations. This data goes into intelligent systems that identify problematic behaviors, hazardous conditions, or business opportunities and make recommendations or take preventative or corrective action.
Other industries use AI-enabled software applications to monitor safety conditions similarly. Similarly, organizations of all types can use AI to process data collected from onsite IoT ecosystems to monitor their facilities or employees. In such situations, intelligent systems monitor and notify businesses of potentially hazardous conditions, such as distracted driving in delivery trucks.
AI-enabled quality assurance and quality control
Manufacturers have used machine vision, and artificial intelligence, for decades. However, they are now advancing such uses by incorporating quality control software with deep learning capabilities to increase the accuracy and speed of their quality control functions.
As deep learning models create their own rules to determine quality, these systems deliver an increasingly accurate quality assurance function.
AI for contextual comprehension
Additionally, businesses use AI for contextual comprehension. Linden cited the use of monitoring technologies by the insurance industry to offer safe driving discounts as an example. By analyzing driving data, AI predicts whether a driver’s behavior is low or high risk. For instance, driving 65 miles per hour on a highway is safe, but not through an urban neighborhood; it requires intelligence to comprehend and report when and where fast driving is acceptable.
Risk classification is, to some extent, also used in usage-based pricing strategies. Using the insurance industry as an example, providers could use AI to customize rates beyond the typical parameters of annual mileage and place of registration by understanding when, how, and where a vehicle is used, possibly down to the street level.
Also Read: Software Application QA Testing: Everything You MUST KNOW in 2023
AI-based optimization
Another application of AI that spans industries and business functions is optimization. AI-based business applications can use algorithms and modeling to transform data into actionable insights regarding how organizations can optimize various operations and business processes, including worker schedules and production product pricing.
AI and more efficient education
The potential impact of AI on education is substantial, with many organizations already utilizing or investigating intelligence software to enhance how people learn. There are numerous ways in which AI can enhance learning. This is the one area that will undoubtedly change over the next few years.
Educational plans can be tailored to each student’s unique learning needs and comprehension levels using intelligent tools. AI-infused training software can also help businesses to upskill workers. They cited data security, process automation, and customer service as the primary applications of AI in their companies. Natural language processing (NLP) is at the forefront of AI adoption. More than half the businesses use NLP applications. AI can significantly reduce costs, boost efficiency and productivity, and open doors to new products, services, and markets.
