Subscribe Industry InsightsIs Your AI/ML Data-Driven Tool Actually Doing a Good Job? By Akhila Sriram on July 13, 2021Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) is the most common phrase used in the tech industry these days and is slowly bleeding into every industry that uses technology. It’s almost overused at this point. Nearly every technology tool advertises and seems to depend on AI/ML for how they parse and analyze data. But because of this, AI/ML feels more like an accepted feature of new technology, rather than bringing something vital or important to the development and software. The idea of artificial intelligence and machine learning is that the technology is backed by algorithms designed to collect, understand, and learn from the data it covers. Where AI/ML Tools Can Go WrongUnderstanding large sets of data, especially when it comes to business, such as data about your customers, employees, and products, takes a huge amount of computing capabilities. In order to get the most out of your data, you need a tool to digest your data and learn from it, using AI/ML capabilities to become more rather than less efficient, as your datasets get larger. But if you aren’t feeding your AI/ML tool the right data, you won’t get the most out of your tool’s capabilities.The most important questions when looking for an AI/ML tool for your business are the following:What business challenge am I trying to solve using this tool?What data is my business collecting related to this challenge?How does this tool handle large sets of data and does this change overtime?Do I need a tool that can grow and change based on the data I am plugging into it?What information does this tool give back to me and how can I apply it to my business challenge?With these questions, you can understand better the opportunities that AI/ML tools have with helping your business. This way, you go into your search process of looking for a tool with a better understanding of what AI/ML actually means for your business and what it can do for you. What Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Represents in TechnologyAI/ML focuses on creating computer programs and software to do what the brain can do: taking data, understanding it, and building upon it by learning and predicting. By creating technology that can do what brains can, humans can create virtual tools to do what humans can, but also better understand how human brains work because of the available analytics. Humans have sometimes grown scared of the potential of AI/ML and technology, as seen in many sci-fi and apocalyptic movies. But at its heart, AI/ML is about getting computers to become more efficient and capable by allowing the programs we create to continue to learn from themselves. In this manner, our tools can improve by themselves, as well as through human-led development.But with this oversaturation of AI/ML in technology these days, nobody digs deeper than a tool or software having AI/ML capabilities to what that brings to the product at hand. In fact, Dr. Luis Perez-Breva, a professor at the MIT School of Engineering, agrees with this, saying “we are overly focusing on data and perhaps that extensive focus is causing goals for machine learning and AI to go astray.” AI/ML is necessary for computers to learn from large sets of data and for computer programs to learn how to be more efficient. By focusing on AI/ML being used rather than how or why, you might get the wrong software solution than what you need. Do you have large sets of data that need to be understood and digested, or do you just need more simple algorithms to comb through your data? AI/ML Paired with Powerful Analytics and MethodologyTo best understand your customers, especially in their digital experience of your business, you have to collect an astronomical amount of data about them. It would then take time for a human to comb through that data for the best insights on your customers. By utilizing a technology equipped with AI/ML, you’re able to let technology do this combing for you, and your tech will slowly and gradually even get better at its job. Just like humans, AI/ML tech learns from its experiences and becomes more efficient over time. In this manner, you’re able to have a tool that slowly gets better over time, but already starts at an advantage to humans doing the same job.At OSG Analytics, our solutions pair AI/ML technology with our behavioral and cognitive analytics, lending the learning and growing technology the power of a proven choice methodology that can go deeper into understanding data. Our technology stack begins with AI/ML in order to learn from the data and pair with analytics to give our clients predictive modeling capabilities to start with past and present data to understand future behavior and changes. Our technology challenges the idea of market research by focusing not on past and present need and opportunities, but planning for the future and predicting what is possible for your business. Your customers and business lie at the heart of our process, so work with us so we can understand your business challenges and solve them with you.