2030 could be the year artificial intelligence (AI) becomes mainstream, as a new report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) sees it contributing as much as $15.7 trillion to the global economy.
According to the PwC report titled ‘Sizing the prize: What’s the real value of AI for your business and how can you capitalise?’ artificial intelligence contribution to the global economy in 2030 could surpass the current output of China and India combined. Increased productivity and consumption side-effects are expected to account for $6.6 trillion and $9.1 trillion respectively, of the revenue from AI.
“While some markets, sectors and individual businesses are more advanced than others, AI is still at a very early stage of development overall,” authors of the report stated. “From a macroeconomic point of view, there are therefore opportunities for emerging markets to leapfrog more developed counterparts. And within your business sector, one of today’s start-ups or a business that has not even been founded yet could be the market leader in ten years time.”
Some of the economic benefits of AI as highlighted by the report include:
Productivity gains from businesses automating processes (including use of robots and autonomous vehicles);
Productivity gains from businesses augmenting their existing labour force with AI technologies (assisted and augmented intelligence); finally,
Increased consumer demand resulting from the availability of personalised and/or higher-quality AI-enhanced products and services.
While North America will potentially experience the fastest economic growth from adopting AI, the benefits are expected to cut across all regions of global economy including Africa. In fact, the total impact of AI adoption on the African continent, Oceania and other Asian market is estimated at $1.2 trillion representing 5.6 percent of GDP.
The sectors that are most likely to be disrupted quickly include healthcare; automotive; financial services; transportation and logistics; technology, communication and entertainment; retail; energy; and manufacturing.
There are three areas in healthcare that has the biggest AI potential. The first is in supporting diagnosis in areas such as detecting small variations from the baseline in patients’ health data or comparison with similar patients, secondly, early adoption of potential pandemics and tracking incidence of the disease to help prevent and contain its spread and thirdly, imaging diagnostics (radiology, pathology).
“Businesses can develop customised solutions rather than expecting consumers to sift through multiple options to find the one that’s appropriate,” PwC noted. For instance, retailers are beginning to use deep learning to predict customers’ orders in advance.
To fully engage the potential of AI for businesses, PwC recommends that organisations first work out what it means to their businesses, and then prioritise their response.
“The ultimate commercial potential of AI is doing things that have never been done before, rather than simply automating or accelerating existing capabilities. Some of the strategic options that emerge won’t match past experience or gut feelings. As a business leader, you may therefore have to take a leap of faith. The prize is being far more capable, in a far more relevant way, than your business could ever be without the infinite possibilities of AI,” PwC noted.
