Powered by blockchain: Realizing AI’s full potential
October 11, 2018
Blockchain’s ability to securely expand an AI implementation’s access to data across organizations will drive a whole new set of insights and value.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) could change the world more than any other advancement since the Industrial Revolution; fundamentally reinventing how businesses compete, grow, and succeed. However, each AI system, and each algorithm within, is dependent upon training and acting upon trustworthy data to which it has access; typically limited to the organization implementing it. Simultaneously, blockchain is redefining business processes and systems of record, enabling secure and confident access to shared data between organizations and increased trust and confidence in the data. Together, AI and blockchain will enable organizations to exceed their current boundaries and gain access to significant amounts of trapped value.
It’s critical that businesses act now to develop strategies around AI, that put people at the center, and commit to develop responsible AI systems that are aligned to moral and ethical values that will empower people to do what they do best—imagine, create and innovate.
– PAUL DAUGHERTY, Accenture Chief Technology and Innovation Officer
Blockchain: The perfect partner for AI data
As surely as steam powered the Industrial Revolution, the ample flow of accurate data will drive artificial intelligence systems. Leading business innovators recognize data’s central role in harnessing AI’s value, though many feel constrained by the relatively meager flows of trusted information they can currently draw upon to feed their systems. That’s why the leading technology firms have invested billions to acquire data-focused companies and their capabilities. The power of AI depends on the access to, magnitude, and quality of the data it can process.
So, while AI redefines the systems of business engagement, blockchain is recalibrating the systems of record. Together, they will remap organizational boundaries, moving them from siloed verticals with complex processes to operate efficiently across horizontals, and, in the process, releasing large amounts of currently trapped value.
Meeting the challenge; capturing the opportunity
AI systems are dramatically changing the nature of services and experiences for consumers. The current phase of the scaled use of AI has focused on the value and services individual organizations can deliver to people. This “internal application focus” results from the natural commercial emphasis of individual businesses attempting to drive profit and growth. Companies usually start with what they can do and control and the data they store in their systems. Rarely can a single organization comprehensively meet a consumer’s holistic needs, and most current AI implementation efforts reflect that limitation.
In the future, wider access to data across an ecosystem and the advances in automated business logic via smart contracts could enable new and greater access for AI machines to traverse business ecosystems and deliver more comprehensive solutions to customers.
Use cases: blockchain makes AI better—faster
The combination of AI and blockchain is fueling the onset of the “Fourth Industrial Revolution “by reinventing economics and information exchange. The potent combination of AI and blockchain is slowly but surely transforming industries and institutions worldwide, including:
1. Smart energy, smart buildings
Green-friendly AI and blockchain solutions can help reduce energy waste and optimize energy trading.
2. Public science
Institutions could store and access an index to academic research, making experimental data available across the ecosystem. Adding analytics, scientists would have a rich data set for learning.
3. Supply chain
By creating digital representations of real-world assets and tracking their relevant data as a single, shared source of information, major efficiencies and product improvements can be realized.
4. Smart devices
As the Internet of Things progresses and our lives are integrated with smart devices, a combination of blockchain and AI will be used to decide how these devices act, interact, and transact.
5. Identity
Blockchain technology for identity combined with AI could quickly show environmental conditions at refugee camps or community health information to produce insights to guide care and support.
6. Healthcare
With secure shared health data on blockchain systems, patients can reclaim control and allow access as desired. They can benefit from AI-enabled personal care, while knowing their data is protected.
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Successfully melding AI and blockchain
Two new digital technologies could create synergies unlike anything the business world has ever seen, but tapping into that power could be challenging. Companies that recognize the power of this combination will have to manage coordinated technology implementations and more complex transformations. To navigate the challenges ahead, leaders will need to think through several key decisions. Download the full report to learn more.
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