AI is everywhere, and it has an impact on all our lives. However, years of bold proclamations have resulted in AI becoming overhyped, with reality often falling short of the world-altering promises. The coming years will be less about making bold statements and more about delivering tangible benefits. Practical uses of AI will be front and centre, as businesses ensure they get their money’s worth by using AI to address specific use cases. 

As AI becomes more pervasive and embedded in life-changing decisions, the need for transparency has intensified. There have been plenty of high-profile cases in recent years where AI has contributed to bias and discrimination, with the use of facial recognition for policing being just one example. There is a high probability of a shift from loose self-regulation to government involvement in AI over the next couple of years. In turn, Big Tech is increasingly using AI to solve the privacy and bias problems that the technology itself created. Explainable AI, which allows humans to understand the path a model took to make a decision, and synthetic data training, which circumvents the small data problem using artificially created data, are two ways AI is being used to develop trust.  

Context-aware computing refers to systems that adapt their behaviour according to the physical environment in which they are operating. An example of context-aware computing in advertising is geotargeting, which allows companies to provide targeted recommendations at the appropriate time. 

However, not all companies are equal when it comes to their capabilities and investments in the key themes that matter most to their industry. Understanding how companies are positioned and ranked in the most important themes can be a key leading indicator of their future earnings potential and relative competitive position. 

According to GlobalData’s thematic research report, Artificial Intelligence, leading adopters include: Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Alibaba, Z Holdings and Baidu. 

Insights from top ranked companies  

Alibaba 

AI is integral for Alibaba, the world’s largest ecommerce platform, as it can predict what customers might want to buy and then offer adverts most linked to these products. In 2020, the company announced that it would spend $28bn on cloud, AI, and other technologies over the next three years. The tech giant has a strong cloud foundation for its AI platform, PAI, which supports various business units within the Alibaba ecosystem. Alibaba introduced its first AI inference chip in 2019. Its Pingtouge chip subsidiary could become a leading chip player within five years. Lagging behind its US and domestic rivals, Alibaba plans to spend $1bn to bolster its AIoT ecosystem that supports its voice assistant (AliGenie) and smart speaker (Tmall Genie), which gather data further allowing targeted ads. Alibaba has also made numerous strategic investments, including in SenseTime, a prominent AI unicorn. 

Baidu 

Chinese search engine giant Baidu got into AI before its domestic rivals. Its Apollo open-source platform for AV development was selected as China’s platform of choice by the government. The company introduced Apollo Enterprise in 2019. Baidu’s fortunes in the smart speaker segment changed for the positive in 2018 with the launch of its lower cost option Xiaodu. Since then, it has solidified its lead in China’s smart speaker market. Its DuerOs is not limited to smart speakers. It has been installed on over 400 million devices, from smartphones to home appliances. 

To further understand the key themes and technologies disrupting the technology industry, access GlobalData’s latest thematic research report on Artificial Intelligence. 

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