How artificial intelligence is touching all our lives for the better

Smartphone penetration has reached 85 percent of the UK adult population, for example, and even the most technophobic are likely to be familiar with at least a few apps. Meanwhile streaming and 5G tech are revolutionising the way we watch movies, TV shows and sports events. 

But AI is arguably the biggest game-changer of them all. It’s easy to get a jaundiced view of what AI is all about thanks to the fanciful interpretations out of Hollywood. But the biggest impacts have nothing to do with robots or even digital assistants like Google Home. Here are three of the real-world applications of AI that are already changing our world for the better.

Better medical diagnoses

If you had some mystery illness, would you want to be diagnosed by a doctor or a machine? You’d probably say the former, but in reality, the question is not that simple. Today, human expertise and artificial intelligence work side by side to make faster, better diagnoses. 

Think of it this way – your doctor can spend an hour reading through case histories to better understand your situation. In that time, he might look at six or seven cases. AI can do a similar analysis of six or seven thousand in seconds and then present the doctor with a range of possible medical conditions along with their associated probabilities. 

Investing smarter

These are difficult financial times, and traditional investments are not generating the interest rates that they did in the late 20th century. The smart money is in alternative options like Forex and crypto trading. 

You might think that is only an option for those who have spent years studying the markets, but think again. Platforms like cryptosengine offer automated trading that uses AI to study the markets, analyse the different indicators and calculate when is the best time to buy and sell. Of course it does not guarantee a profit, nothing can do that. But it does open up a world of trading and investment options that were simply not available to amateurs before the advent of AI.

Reducing fraud

Fraud against big businesses is not the victimless crime that some like to suggest. In fact, it often ends up affecting us all, especially when insurance companies, for example, are forced to increase the premium they charge to cover losses. 

AI is being used more and more in insurtech, both to speed up the claim process and to flag up potentially fraudulent claims more reliably. It does this by analysing big data trends and essentially “knowing where to look.” Faster processing is good news for everyone, but better operational efficiency and reduced fraud all adds up to cost reduction for insurers – and that’s a saving they can pass on to the rest of us.

Welcome to the machine

These are just three examples, but they demonstrate that AI really has nothing to do with smart machines taking over our world. It’s simply a case of using tools to do things better and faster, something humankind has been doing since the days of the Industrial Revolution.

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