How AI and Cloud Computing is changing the business world?

Cloud computing is one of the latest and most exciting developments in technology. It enables companies to outsource their IT needs to providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. The availability of cloud platforms has led to the rapid development of artificial intelligence systems that can achieve even greater heights by leveraging these platforms, which also include advanced data analytics capabilities.

As per a new market report that has been published by Statista, the global AI market will be $120 billion by 2025. Artificial intelligence has found its way into fields like cloud computing and digital platforms such as Siri, Google Assistant, and Tektorch in which it has created a far more accessible and interconnected experience for users. As artificial intelligence continues to improve its systems, these digital assistants are becoming increasingly intuitive to use.

What is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial intelligence, commonly referred to as AI, is an umbrella term given to machines that can carry out tasks in a way generally attributed to human intelligence. This means that devices are given capabilities associated with intellectual behavior, including the ability to learn from past events and discoveries, reason, and make decisions on their own.

One of the most common questions is why do we need AI. According to industry experts, the creation of a neural network can be overwhelming at times, but it all leads up to achieving more accuracy for the company. Allow us to explain why artificial intelligence is important and necessary to businesses today. Artificial intelligence uses deep learning, object recognition, and other capabilities to improve business technologies. It also provides a decent impact on customer acquisition as well as retention.

Here are some of the benefits of AI:

• Avoids mistakes and ensures smooth running, provided that the AI system is set up properly.

• Makes faster business decisions based on outputs from cognitive technologies that deliver deep insights into your data.

• Saves time, money, and headaches by automating and optimizing routine processes and tasks with AI.

• Uses insight to predict trends in customer preferences and offer them the best, personalized experience.

What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing allows customers to leverage IT resources over an internet connection via a third party. This is great because it means that users no longer have to operate their own data centers, control hardware infrastructures, or maintain databases; instead, they can go to a provider who takes care of all of that on the user’s behalf. Customers don't have to worry about the physical infrastructure required for them to launch new products or services; they can simply tap into a cloud service at any time and from anywhere, allowing them increased flexibility in terms of when and where they develop, innovate, and deploy.

The role of artificial intelligence for cloud computing specifically allows systems to be capable of self-learning by continually learning from previous interactions and understanding user preferences - which in turn helps provide more personalized experiences for end-users based on their individual needs.

The following are the benefits of cloud computing:

• Cloud applications allow people to work together more efficiently by providing everyone with access to the same data in real-time, no matter where they are.

• Cloud computing allows companies to not worry about the maintenance of their hardware, which reduces costs.

• Cloud is essentially an off-site, remote server provider that offers clients massive data storage capacity. This enables users to store online their important documents such as images, videos, and audio in one place.

• Cloud computing is like the safe, high-tech cloud in which a company stores its sensitive and valued data. Being stored on a cloud ensures that this data is protected under multiple layers of security such as firewalls, encryption, and change management policies.
  

What are the benefits of using Cloud and AI together in your business?

Cloud computing has changed the way many businesses work by making them more efficient and productive, but AI has really taken cloud computing to a whole new level of innovation by integrating advanced processing with current marketplace trends. Today, AI is being implemented not only into digital assistants but also in e-commerce applications like online shopping carts, social media marketing platforms, advertising software, and many other areas of business.

According to the top cloud service providers, cloud computing and artificial intelligence go hand in hand. It's claimed that while AI can make business processes flow more efficiently, cloud computing makes utilizing AI possible without having to purchase expensive hardware, essentially bringing advanced and sophisticated capabilities within reach of businesses of all sizes!

Some ways that combining cloud computing with AI benefits businesses are:

Cost-Efficient:

AI and the cloud together are a powerful combination. Together, these two technologies can save a company money as nothing is required for on-premises data centers. They also assist in cutting costs and improving efficiency in research and development processes. By using AI, companies can gain access to valuable research insights without having to factor in any additional associated expenses. On an overall level, this power duo can help companies save money from both sides: no infrastructure costs, alongside the better performance of in-house systems.

Faster Decision Making:

Every business needs to make decisions. With the help of Artificial Intelligence along with the cloud, decision-making is easier than ever - as technology can scan large amounts of data and compress them down into useful information that empowers decision-makers to make better, quicker decisions. Suppose a company has access to early warning systems. In that case, they can use them in conjunction with cloud-based tools like predictive analytics to make more informed decisions as part of an overall business strategy.

Security:

Security is one of the key concerns for businesses today. Cloud computing via AI can prove very useful in terms of security. Implementation of AI in cloud infrastructures could process the information more efficiently and detect inconsistencies immediately. As a result, the AI can prompt caution for a human or respond through other alternatives it provides as an option. It would also help security teams to prioritize their tasks and respond effectively to protect business-specific information.

Analytics Advantages:

The process of analyzing data using AI-based cloud implementations helps to ensure several highly important benefits for business organizations. Business owners and organizations that avail the services of skilled analysts will see considerable cost-cutting efforts in the long run by employing this technology. Even if, especially for small companies, one still has to spare a budget and pay extra money to hire trained employees, which might not always be possible considering their limited budgets. Therefore, they can successfully achieve more while spending less when artificial intelligence-based cloud services are at their disposal.

Business Management:

Business management is the process of defining business goals, implementing strategies to achieve them, and then measuring their achievement. AI [artificial intelligence, or software that can learn to respond like a human but without being programmed] is one area where business applications keep improving all the time. For example, AI in businesses allows better screening of spam emails, reducing time wasted on irrelevant contacts. A company with many customers needs a more streamlined way of sorting out customers for different purposes.

Operational Improvements:

Growth is inevitable; as companies grow, so do their operations. When storing data, on-premise solutions are a thing of the past. Buying servers or allocating server space is expensive and quite frankly; unnecessary these days. Cloud service providers such as AWS are popular options for companies looking to store their data without having to allocate additional server space in their company offices. Of course, this doesn't mean that you can't choose an on-premise solution, but cloud services are more appealing options when it comes to practicality and cost-effectiveness.

Hiring Process:

For many companies, the challenge of having to hire qualified workers is daunting. It’s a real time-consuming process even with the aid of applicant tracking systems (ATS), and managing application and resume materials can be difficult for recruiters. Since the research side of recruiting can be surprisingly tedious alone, it’s no wonder that companies are seeking out AI solutions to help them cut down their candidate screening process. The good news is that multiple applicant tracking systems have been adding AI capabilities to make it easier for recruiting professionals to manage applications more efficiently, thereby eliminating bias in such processes as well.

Development and Team Integration:

Businesses want solutions delivered as quickly and cost-effectively as possible. The integration of artificial intelligence and cloud computing supports the agile development of solutions while guaranteeing their efficiency which minimizes error rates.

Combine AI and cloud computing, and another benefit is better integration among teams. As DevOps, you can use the Cloud to share all data securely between team members who need it, tying fast turnaround times and improved productivity.

Best Cloud AI Service Providers

Though the possibilities for artificial intelligence are seemingly limitless, these are some of the more general capabilities AI has and can be implemented with cloud-delivered services. To get a more in-depth look at what you can actually do with AI, we’ll take a look at specific examples from Amazon, Microsoft, and IBM

• IBM Watson - IBM’s Watson is the face of their artificial intelligence services. IBM’s Watson aims to “turn unstructured data into decisions and actions.” It allows businesses to create conversational interfaces that can stand in for conventional customer service representatives. It offers 13 APIs which allow for deep analytical review and comparison.
  

• Microsoft Cognitive Services - Microsoft Azure falls second behind Amazon Web Services in cloud market share but is ready to keep pace with its deep expertise in artificial intelligence (AI). The platform includes services like Computer Vision, which is focused on making systems see; Speech, which will allow users to make their product talk; and Recommendation, which gives clients a way to let customers make decisions for themselves based on the data they provide.
  

• Google Cloud Machine Learning - Google recently announced that its machine learning will be more advanced than other platforms on the market. The tech giant boasts the ability to scale across many industries, from retail businesses to healthcare and beyond. The Google Cloud Platform offers a variety of tools with which you can build powerful machine learning models that are built especially for your unique goals, no matter what they may be!
  

• Amazon AI - Amazon has been around for over a decade and knows all the ins and outs of the cloud industry. They are thus in a very good position to introduce their own cloud-based AI services. Amazon AI, available now, lets developers build new applications with AI services like speech recognition with Amazon Lex and image recognition with Amazon Polly. Alternatively, you could use existing data that you bring to your budding business to train your own AI using Amazon Machine Learning. When your AI is ready for prime time, you can launch your creation with confidence thanks to the power of Amazon EMR which will help you deploy and scale your software at an affordable cost.
  

How to build your own AI applications using Cloud Infrastructure?

Currently, the greatest value of these AI services lies in their ability to improve existing products and processes. However, it’s not always plain sailing when you get started. Businesses should research, brainstorm, and experiment with available resources to apply them to provide the greatest value to their customers. This should clarify what could well turn out to be a somewhat tricky concept. While cloud computing may make using AI resources easier, this technology is still just at a very early stage in its development. Hence, there are still quite a few obstacles that one needs to take into consideration first!

Creating an application that incorporates artificial intelligence with cloud infrastructure is a somewhat complicated process but only when you are dealing with all of the technical terms and ensuring they tie in with your overall goal. As AI goes through rapid progress, you can set up cloud infrastructure for your own project using readily available tools such as Amazon's server instances or Google Cloud Platform. As developments continue and Artificial Intelligence continues to get more sophisticated, you can either develop an interface with cloud capabilities suited specifically for your project or hire programmers who will do it for you.

Takeaway

Most companies have been doing their best to overhaul the inner workings of their company. And one of the key areas they've been turning their attention to is getting up-to-date with AI technologies. But we can't stress enough how important it is for businesses in all industries to step up because it's going to be imperative for all companies, regardless of their size, that are operating in modern times to make sure they are prepared for what lies ahead. There's no better time than now to take a look at your business and figure out how this technology will affect your business moving forward!

People are working from home as a result of COVID, and having a cloud infrastructure is a gift since it allows you to effortlessly interact with your team members. While AI is vital for your organization to thrive, Cloud Infrastructure is what you truly need right now to scale up. If you have a good cloud infrastructure foundation, you may subsequently apply AI to your organization.

Jeel Sanghavi

Business Analyst at RaftLabs