Four Technologies That Deliver Long-Term ROI
According to Forrester, today's organizations with a two- to four-year ROI window should be piloting four emerging technologies: edge intelligence, explainable AI, intelligent agents (IA), and privacy-preserving technologies (PPT).
Edge intelligence. This is the ability to collect more data from edge devices, applications, and users to improve insights and analysis in real time. The corresponding set of technologies includes streaming analytics, edge machine learning (EdgeML), real-time data management on smart devices, and edge servers. Application scenarios for edge intelligence include distributed data fabric, Internet of Things (IoT) networks, smart homes and cities, and digital twins.
Forrester distinguishes three types of edge, each with its own unique set of characteristics, Hopkins said, all located outside the data center or cloud.
The engagement edge is made up of things like georgia mobile database delivery networks and smart home IoT. The enterprise edge is the data fabric that connects Tier-1 data centers to distributed sites in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, and is where enterprise applications like ERP and CRM are hosted and run. And the telco edge is the telecommunications spine that helps all the edge networks, applications, and devices operate and interact more efficiently.
, the goal of edge intelligence is to localize and personalize customer experiences, especially when it comes to processing video, images, and sensor data.
Explainable AI. According to Forrester, it is a set of processes and methods designed to help people understand AI systems. Specifically, explainable AI is achieved by creating a surrogate of an AI model that approximates its inner workings.
“The big problem with AI today is that companies don’t trust it,” Hopkins said. “We believe that explainable AI technology, as part of a responsible AI program, will be what really makes AI a reality.” According to the Forrester report, explainable AI increases trust in AI by allowing people to understand what’s going on behind the scenes of the AI process.
However, this set of technologies is currently not very popular. Only about a quarter of respondents intend to use them in the near future. However, this may change due to the imminent adoption (late 2022 or early 2023) of the EU law on artificial intelligence, which will require different levels of explanation for AI use cases.