The Impacts of Artificial Intelligence on Business

As the capabilities of artificial intelligence and technology continue to grow and become more versatile and sophisticated, there are more opportunities for continued growth, but these advances can have a wide range of impacts across many industries in the global economy. Artificial intelligence encompasses a wide spectrum of technological advances, such as robots, augmented reality, autonomous vehicles, and algorithms.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) predicted in its most recent analysis, that around 15.6 million positions will be created between 2012 and 2022, resulting with a growth of around 0.5 percent a year to the labor force. Due to technical advances, it is predicted that the information sector is expected to shrink in the number of jobs available over the next decade. Another area that is expected  to lose jobs in the coming decade will be the manufacturing industry, with the agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting sectors expected to be the least likely to add new job opportunities. However, it is expected that the healthcare, hospitality, finance and professional services industries will experience job growth over the decade.

The magnitude of the use of robots have spread around the developed world, and globally, the use of industrial robots in operation has substantially increased over the past few years. The impact of the automation of blue-collar jobs has already changed employment patterns, and the spread to white-collar jobs have become more apparent.

Computerized algorithms have started to become increasingly used in stock exchanges, where high- frequency trades are being made by machines instead of humans. These algorithms are able to spot inefficiencies in trading or differentials in markets on a very small scale to execute trades. These algorithms are also increasingly being used in arbitrage trading, where algorithms sense that the same stocks have different market values on different exchanges, and by using complex mathematical formulas it determines when there are opportunities for trades to be made.

There are various uses of virtual reality, and there are several companies that are actively using and integrating it into its products. Along with these companies, several countries are hoping to use virtual reality to bolster its economic growth. In China, the domestic VR market is expected to grow by 36 times in the next four years to 55 billion yuan ($8.5 billion), in part to the changes in policy to bolster the economy through innovation and the decrease of its dependence on heavy industry. Global architecture firm, IA Interior Architects is working to build design models in virtual reality and is experimenting it to allow clients to “tour” a project before it is built; while Sotheby’s International Reality has started to use virtual reality to host open houses. Carnival developed a promotion to let shoppers at some AT&T stores to use Samsung VR equipment to explore cruise ships and vacation destinations. Augmented reality allows people to supplement their senses with computer generated graphics, sounds, videos, or geo-locations, and can be made interactive for users. Because of its many uses, some estimates state the virtual reality market will be worth $150 billion within four years.