The internet is overflowing of useful things AI (Artificial Intelligence) can do or is supposed to do in the near future. It seems like AI is the Holy Grailin our time. In this post, I will not comment on whether this is true or not. Instead I will refer to some underlying elements that have to be in place to actually get the results that are expected in this type of projects.

Chatbots and virtual assistants that could be able to give answers to almost anything is a great example of an expected outcome of AI projects.

Furthermore, a pinch of AI will help you to:

– Present the items that is best suited for you in online shops

– Sorting images by categories

– Providing self-checkout cash registers

– Do advanced security checks at the airport

– Draw, paint and write texts for you

– Follow up customer leads

– Optimize processes (eg. sales)

In fact, a recent study by Business Insider suggests that as much as 85% of customer interactions will be managed without a human involved by 2020.

The common element that all of the above scenarios requires is data, machine capacity and software. The data element (preferably a personal data) is the part that really makes this personal and relevant. A recent study by Deloitte points out that the data element is also the part that actually results in the most failures in projects.

As the study points out, there are numerous reasons why this problem with data occurs

– Data is required from multiple systems

– Different systems have different types of data (Customer information, financial data and contract data)

– Data is stored in systems that never have been integrated before

– Several systems have more or less the same overlapping data (what to select?)

– The type of data required for some AI projects is different from the data that is used in the day to day business

– Getting the data, preparing it for analysis, protecting privacy, and ensuring security can be time-consuming and costly

– data is often needed before it is even possible to conduct a proof of concept

However, there is “light in the end of the tunnel”! We now see a large market for integration solutions that’s is more or less built for this setting. The solution is cloud based, focusing on speed in delivery, supporting a broad range of systems/API/interfaces, and is also focusing on reducing the cost element. The market for enabling micro services is named iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service).

This market for iPaaS is expected to grow to as much as USD 2.705.8 million by 2025, an annual growth of 18.9% (CAGR) from 2017 according to Reportlinker.

So, with the help of an integration service, that is focusing on speed in delivery, easiness in configuration and cost – the AI project can be “saved”.

We are a partner to Dell Boomi that is among the leaders in the iPaaS market. Together with Optimiseit, we use it in our Managed Service, and we are a referral partner for customers that want to maintain the platform themselves.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if this sounds interesting or if there is other scenarios and possibilities that you want to discuss.