Whether we realize it or not, artificial intelligence is already in our daily lives. 15 examples below show how we are already using AI in our day to day life, both online and offline. Whether we are using our smartphones, surfing the internet, buying products online, using navigation, wasting time on social media or listening to songs on our favourite music streaming service, AI is impacting our choices in one way or another.
Artificial intelligence (AI) makes it possible for machines to learn from experience, adjust to new inputs, and perform human-like tasks. Most AI examples you hear about today – from chess-playing computers to self-driving cars – rely heavily on deep learning and natural language processing. Using these technologies, computers can be trained to accomplish specific tasks by processing large amounts of data and recognizing patterns.
15 Examples of Artificial Intelligence
01. Smartphones
Smartphones have become the most indispensable tech product that we own today, and we use it almost all the time. Well, if you are using a smartphone, you are interacting with AI whether you know it or not. From the apparent AI features such as the built-in smart assistants to not so obvious ones such as the portrait mode in the camera, AI is impacting our lives every day.
The two examples give us a glimpse into the world of AI and its effect on our lives. Firstly, there are prominent AI elements which most of us have some knowledge about. For example, when you are using a smart assistant, whether it’s Google Assistant, Alexa, Siri, or Bixby, you know that these assistants are based on AI. However, when we are using a feature such as at portrait mode effect while shooting a picture, we never consider that AI might be behind that too. Have you ever thought how the Google Pixel phones or iPhones can capture such great portrait shots? The answer is artificial intelligence.
More and more manufacturers blend-in AI components in their smartphones such as integrated chips with AI capabilities. Among big companies producing such chips are Qualcomm and Huawei. The AI integration helps bring features like scene detection, mixed and virtual reality elements, and more. AI is going to play an even significant role in the coming years. We already see the massive emphasis on AI with the latest Android and iOS updates. Features like app actions, splices, and adaptive battery in Android Pie and Siri shortcut and Siri suggestions in iOS 12 are made possible with AI.
02. Smart Cars and Drones
Talking about the AI, there is no better and more prominent display of this technology than a smart car and drone manufacturers are doing with it. A few years back, using a fully automatic car was a dream, however, now companies like Tesla have made so much progress that we already have a fleet of semi-automatic cars on the road.
Companies like Amazon and Walmart are heavily investing in drone delivery programs and it will become a reality far sooner than what you expect. If you think that’s far-fetched, do note that militaries worldwide are already using successful drone programs.
Tesla cars are a prime example of how AI is impacting our daily life. Did you know that all the Tesla cars are connected and the things that your car learns is shared across all the cars? That means, if you had to take an unanticipated hard-left on a cross-road, all the Tesla cars would know how to maneuver that turn after they are updated.
3. Social Media Feeds
If you think that smart cars don’t personally affect you as they are still not in your country or city, well, how about something which you use daily. Even if you are living under a rock, there’s a high probability that you are tweeting from underneath it. If Twitter’s not your choice, maybe it’s Facebook or Instagram, or Snapchat or any of the myriad of social media apps out there. Well, if you are using social media, most of your decisions are being impacted by artificial intelligence.
From the feeds that you see in your timeline to the notifications you receive from these apps, everything is curated by AI. AI takes all your past behaviour, web searches, interactions, and everything else that you do when you are on these websites and tailors the experience just for you. The sole purpose of AI here is to make the apps so addictive that you come back to them again and again, and I am ready to place a bet that AI is winning this war against you.
4. Music and Media Streaming Services
Another great example of how AI impacts our lives are the music and media streaming services that we are using daily.
Whether you are using Spotify, Netflix, or YouTube, AI is making the decisions for you. You might feel that you are in total control, but you are not. And as it is with everything, sometimes it’s good and sometimes it bad. For example, the Discover Weekly playlist on Spotify has introduced to several new artists who wouldn’t have been introduced to if not for the AI at Spotify. So, next time you are hitting play on a recommended video on YouTube or watching a recommended show on Netflix, or listening to a pre-created playlist on Spotify, or any other media and music streaming service for that matter, remember that AI is playing a significant role in that.
5. Video Games
The video game industry is probably one of the earliest adopters of AI. The integration started very small with the use of AI to generate random levels that people can play. However, that has increased to a level that goes far beyond what one can even imagine. Any game that you play has some sort of AI element to it. When you are playing a game such as PUBG or Fortnite, you essentially start against a couple of AI-powered bots and then move to play against real players. Even when you are playing a single person story mode game, you are playing against AI bosses. If you are playing racing games, you are racing against AI bots. Just know that if you play any game, you are using AI.
6. Online Ads Network
One of the biggest users of artificial intelligence is the online ad industry which uses AI to not only track user statistics but also serve us ads based on those statistics. Without AI, the online ad industry will just fail as it would show random ads to users with no connection to their preferences what so ever. So next time when you are going online and seeing ads or product recommendations, know that AI is impacting your life.
7. Navigation and Travel
By now you must be convinced of the fact that AI is impacting our lives daily. However, if there are still some skeptics out there let us take a few more examples. How about the navigation and travel industry? I mean, most of us travel from time to time and use the navigation on almost a daily basis. Do you know that whether you are using Google or Apple Maps for navigating, or calling an Uber, or booking a flight ticket, you are using AI?
Well, if you didn’t know that before, it’s time that you open your eyes. Both Google and Apple along with other navigation services use artificial intelligence to interpret hundreds of thousands of data points that they receive to give you real-time traffic data. When you are calling an Uber, both the pricing and the car that matches your ride request is decided by AI. As you can see, AI plays a significant role in reaching from point A to point B.
8. Banking and Finance
The banking and finance industry plays a major role in our lives. The world runs on money and banks are essentially the gatekeepers that regulate that flow. Did you know that the banking and finance industry heavily relies on artificial intelligence for customer service, fraud protection, investment, and more? A simple example is the automated emails that you receive from banks whenever you do an out of the ordinary transaction. Well, that’s AI watching over your account and trying to warn you of any fraud.
AI is also being trained to look at large samples of fraud data and find a pattern so that you can be warned before it happens to you. Also, when you hitch a little snag and chat with the bank’s customer service, the chances are that you are chatting with an AI bot. Even the big players in the finance industry use AI to analyze data to find the best avenues to invest money to get the most returns with the least risk. That’s not all, AI is poised to play an even more prominent role in the industry as major banks across the world are investing billions of dollars in the AI technology and we all will observe its effects sooner than later.
9. Smart Home Devices
We are even willingly letting artificial intelligence in our houses. Many smart home devices that we buy use artificial intelligence to learn our behaviour so that they can adjust the settings themselves to make the experience as frictionless as possible for us. We have already talked about smart voice assistants which we use to control these smart home devices, and as we know, they are the prime example of AI impacting our lives.
A perfect AI-powered house which reacts to our choices in real-lives is still a decade or so away, however, we are seeing the steps that will take us there. There are smart thermostats that adjust the temperature based on your preferences, smart lights that change the colour and intensity of lights based on time and much more. It won’t be long when our main interactions with all our smart home devices are through AI only.
10. Security and Surveillance
While we can all debate the ethics of using a broad surveillance system, there’s no denying the fact that it is being used and AI is playing a big part in that. Humans can’t keep monitoring multiple monitors with feeds from hundreds if not thousands of cameras at the same time, and hence, using AI makes perfect sense. With technologies like object recognition and facial recognition getting better and better every day, it won’t be long when all the security camera feeds are being monitored by an AI and not a human. While there’s still time before AI can be fully implemented, this will be our future.
11. Smart Keyboard Apps
Granted, not everyone loves dealing with on-screen keyboards. However, they have become far more intuitive, allowing users to type comfortably and faster. What has probably proved to be a catalyst for them is the integration of AI. The smart keyboard apps keep a tab on the writing style and predict words and emojis accordingly. Thus, typing on the touchscreen has become faster and more convenient. Not to mention, artificial intelligence also plays a vital role in pin-pointing misspellings and typos.
12. Smart Speakers
Not for nothing, many believe that smart speakers are all set for a big boom in technology. Aside from controlling smart home devices, they are also up to the task for several things like sending quick messages, setting reminders, checking the weather and getting the latest news. Smart speakers are probably the most overt examples of the use of AI in our real life.
13. Healthcare
The use of artificial intelligence has given a new dimension to healthcare. With the introduction of AI-powered machines, it’s become a bit easier to detect disease and diagnosis. Moreover, it’s also playing a significant role in making the treatment and management processes more simplified. As a result, hospitals and healthcare centers are fast embracing AI-enabled technologies to facilitate everything from research to the detection of diseases.
14. E-Commerce
AI-driven algorithms have kind of given the much-needed impetus to e-commerce to provide a more personalized experience. According to several reports, its usage has vastly increased sales and also played a good part in building loyal relationships with customers. Thus, companies take advantage of AI to deploy chatbots to collect pivotal data and also predict purchases to create a customer-centric experience. Yet to come across this shift of strategy? Just spend some time with sites like Amazon and eBay and you will soon get to know how fast the landscape is changing around you – for the better.
15. Smart Email Apps
If you still find your inbox cluttered with too many unwanted messages, chances are pretty high that you are still stuck with an old school email app. Yeah, you heard it right! Modern email apps like Spark make the most of AI to get rid of spam messages and also categorize emails so that you can quickly access the important ones. What’s more, they also offer smart replies based on the messages you receive to help you reply to any email soon. The “Smart Reply” feature of Gmail is a great example of this. It uses AI to scan the text of the email and provides you with contextual answers.
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