Whether you believe it or not or whether you like it or not the future is going to disrupt your life. This means that we are definitely going to do things differently. This revolution has already started, and it is driven by AI – Artificial Intelligence. Through our smartphones and Apps we have readily accepted these changes.

Remember these terms

Artificial Intelligence AI and Machine Learning ML and Algorithms

So what is AI?

AI is (a science of) Computers emulating humans and ML – Machine learning is the method behind how machines learn from data

What does artificial intelligence do? 

Artificial intelligence – or AI for short – is technology that enables a computer to think or act in a more ‘human’ way. It does this by taking in information from its surroundings and deciding how to respond based on what it learns or senses.

What can artificial intelligence be used for?

Artificial intelligence, or AI, is the use of computer science programming to imitate human thought and action by analyzing data and surroundings, solving or anticipating problems and learning or self-teaching to adapt to a variety of tasks.

Artificial intelligence in business management

Applications of AI in business management include:

• Throwing out the junk from your emails
• smart email categorisation
• voice to text features
• smart personal assistants, such as Siri, Cortana and Google Now
• automated responders and online customer support
• process automation
• sales and business forecasting
• security surveillance
• smart devices that adjust according to behaviour
• automated insights, especially for data-driven industries (eg financial services or e-commerce)

Artificial intelligence in e-commerce

AI in e-commerce can be evident in:

• smart searches and relevance features
• personalisation as a service – telling you what you can find in your area including where to buy those things that you like and what is the best prices
• product recommendations and purchase predictions
• fraud detection and prevention for online transactions
• dynamic price optimisation 

Here is a real Life example of the application of Algorhithms in Artificial intelligence AI and the need for continues education. It is taken from a book by Emily Guendelsberger, author of the new book, “On the Clock.”

Algorithms are Changing Low-Wage Work…

Big-name restaurant chains, like McDonalds and Chipotle, have started to offer free or subsidized college education options to their workers. The idea is that this can help those employers recruit and retain workers by offering educational benefits, and also offer them a path to more lucrative careers.

But there is a price to pay

and how well do these new benefits work in practice? What kinds of people do they best serve?

The author of the book spent at least a month working three different low-wage jobs—at a McDonalds restaurant, an Amazon warehouse, and at a customer-service call center. The culture she saw at these jobs was very different from what she remembers 20 years ago when she scooped ice cream for minimum wage as a teenager.

She describes what she experienced as “cyborg jobs,” meaning they often treat employees more like robots than people. One example, she says is that many service jobs now use algorithms to schedule when employees work, and the machine often isn’t shy about handing out assignments that she sees as unreasonable.

Consider what workers call a “clopen,”

Clopens or computerized work schedules. It is one of the most challenging things for many low-wage workers these days. You don’t have a regular schedule anymore. Your schedule is set by an algorithm that sort of analyzes what they think the demand is going to be that day, They use data from the previous year and the previous month.

But if it’s a computer that tells you, “Oh yeah, this is the schedule.” It just prints out and you’re really not sure how it came up with that… then it sort of erases culpability.”

However, if you’re using the data from the previous week it means giving people are given a schedule the day before.There’s no predictability, which is incredibly hard if you’re trying to plan anything in your life whatsoever, especially having kids.”

The algorithms are used to try to keep staffing levels as low as possible, which means more hectic days for workers—and more stress.

Welcome to the 21st Century