10 Ways AI Is Transforming Enterprise Software

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All images were modified from original Pixabay images.

If you are currently in the market for almost any kind of enterprise software, you will almost certainly run across at least one vendor claiming that its product includes artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. Of course, some of these claims are no more than marketing hyperbole, or "AI washing." However, in many cases, software makers truly are integrating new capabilities related to analytics, vision, natural language, or other areas that deserve the AI label.

The market researchers at IDC have gone so far as to call AI "inescapable." According to the firm, "By 2025, at least 90% of new enterprise apps will embed artificial intelligence."

Similarly, Omdia | Tractica predicted that worldwide revenue from AI software will climb from $10.1 billion in 2018 to $126.0 billion in 2025, led in large part by advancements in deep learning technology. It added, "Tractica believes the global market has entered a new era where AI is viewed as an essential technology to driving improvements in quality, efficiency, and speed."

IDC's Frank Gens stated the same idea even more strongly in the IDC report. "It's hard to overstate the importance and the impact that artificial intelligence will have on enterprises' ability to create new products and services, new customer experiences, and new ways of operating in the coming decades," he said. "By 2025, we expect to see enterprises using AI-enabled and AI-led apps to gain competitive advantage from shorter reaction times, greater success with product innovation, and improved customer satisfaction."

That perception of the importance of AI drives many enterprise software buyers to look for applications that incorporate AI capabilities. And of course, vendors have quickly obliged.

In some cases, vendors have incorporated machine learning-based capabilities into existing software. In other cases, startups are taking an "AI-first" approach, developing entirely new categories of enterprise software designed from the very beginning on AI technology. In both cases, the AI features are enabling enterprises to do new things in new ways.

The following slides highlight 10 ways that artificial intelligence is currently transforming enterprise software and gives hints about where enterprise use of AI might be headed next.

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