AI riding the crest of hype

The simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think like humans and mimic their actions is called Artificial Intelligence or AI. As the hype around AI has accelerated, vendors have been scrambling to promote how their products and services use AI. The Growth of Artificial intelligence projects is promising.

Artificial intelligence has been riding the crest of the hype wave, but we don't hear enough about the problems and headaches it brings with it.

A new survey estimates the number of complete or nearly complete AI projects has grown tenfold over the past 12 months. Great news, but that means IT teams are scrambling to keep up. Companies need more people with the right skills to put it all together, and executives and managers must ensure that the AI securely delivers what the business needs.

But the issues are talent shortages, integration challenges, and governance requirements. A recent survey of 700 IT managers and executives published by Juniper Networks finds that building AI solutions in-house brings its own sets of challenges. More than half or 53% of IT leaders surveyed say that the reliability of these in-house AI applications is a top challenge, followed by integration with existing systems i.e., 46%, finding new AI-capable talent is 44%, and development time which is 44%.

IT leaders indicate that the top risks from inadequate oversight of AI are accelerated hacking or what the survey's authors call AI terrorism i.e., 55%. Privacy also ranks as the top concern, cited by 55%. Regulation compliance, which accounted for 49% and loss of human agency i.e., 48%, were also indicated as top risks.

Finding or nurturing the right talent to develop, operate, and leverage AI is an issue challenging many of today's IT leaders. The survey finds three areas as the top investment intentions: Hiring the right people to operate and develop AI capabilities, further training the AI models, and expanding the capabilities of the current AI tool into new business units.