Copy for a client website, by John Sailors, August 2024.
Artificial intelligence is no longer something we are preparing for. It is here. Adoption of generative AI has spiked as companies strive to stay ahead of the curve, and as a result, early adopters are left to find or create best practices as they integrate AI into various business functions. For most, they need to think on their feet, so to speak.
That spike in new AI use was measured in McKinsey & Co.’s recent survey showing the state of artificial intelligence in early 2024. Of respondents, 65 percent said their organizations used generative AI regularly. That was nearly double the number reported in the company’s previous survey ten months earlier. And basic adoption—using AI for at least one function—grew to 72 percent of respondents.
Adoption of AI has grown globally as well. On the survey, two-thirds of respondents in nearly every region reported using AI. Driving this growth is enthusiasm for the technology: A full three-quarters of respondents believe AI will lead to disruptive change within their industries.
Perhaps most importantly, companies report that adoption of AI is paying off. Organizations are reporting jumps in revenue alongside cost reductions in the business units that use the technology. Successful applications companies are reporting include marketing and sales, product development, and IT.
And it’s not just companies that are reporting success with AI tools. AI is on the upswing with individuals, in their work and their personal lives. The largest jump in personal use came from the most senior-level respondents.
On every level and with nearly every application, however, AI technology is new and untested. Early adopters have no best practices or past case studies to turn to for guidance. And it’s thus not so much that they need to think on their feet but rather get used to falling down.
First-of-a-kind uses for 2024
Three new AI applications will help make 2024 an even bigger year for AI than 2023 was. These first-of-a-kind applications all will show just how far reaching and game changing AI can be.
1. Predictive healthcare and personalized treatment plans
Twenty years ago the big technology-in-healthcare story was mandates for converting to electronic medical records, or electronic health records. On one hand, the challenges of moving all patients’ records across the country to digital were immense. How would hospitals and health systems using different software communicate? How could we train doctors, nurses, and technicians to embrace computerization?
But on the upside of course was all this data from hundreds of million of patients that could be used in research, diagnosis, and treatment planning. But that came with a challenge too: how to actually use all that data. That’s where AI is about to take off.
Artificial intelligence can process literally mind-boggling amounts of medical data. Algorithms can look at genetic data, lifestyle influences, and other factors. We’re building an AI platform that can predict a person’s risk of developing certain conditions or diseases and return personalized prevention and/or treatment plans.
Such AI systems will revolutionize predictive healthcare in numerous ways. The technology will improve preventative care, offer individualized health plans and treatment, and open up new avenues of research.
Implementation, however, will come with challenges, just as EMRs did two decades ago. AI technology is moving so fast, it often alarms the people developing it. And the doctors and nurses who will be using these AI ssytems will be dealing not just with technology but a wide range of ethical and social issues, all of which must be integrated into a job that’s already often overwhelming.
2. AI education
AI has forced its way into education just as computers and the internet did twenty-five ago. As fervently as educators stand up for traditional methods of teaching over technology, computers, the internet, and now AI have just too much to offer.
Early applications include robust AI tools such as Cerebry, an AI math teaching assistant and Eduaide.ai, an AI assisted lesson-development tool. Meanwhile, even general tools like ChatGPT can assist teachers and students in numerous ways.
But this year, we’re going to see AI taking off in new directions in education, especially personalized education. This year, we’ll see the emergence of full end-to-end platforms that will go much further. These new platforms will be able to consider a student’s comprehension level and learning style and create individualized teaching materials and curriculums that meet the individual’s needs.
These systems will be able to bridge learning gaps, helping students who have traditionally lagged behind. With such personalization, they will benefit both challenged learners and students who were already thriving in the traditional classroom.
At the same time, the technology comes with an array of adoption challenges, just as the internet did for teachers. Traditionally, teachers had to learn their subjects and how to teach These days getting teaching credentials requires expertise also in computer educational tools, shooting and editing video, and how to use online resources. Now AI will be added.
And whether they embrace or reject AI, teachers are forced to deal with it and think on their feet. For example, with ChatGPT, a student who wants to cheat needs just type (or copy and paste) a teacher’s essay assignment prompt into a window and hit enter. And in just seconds the tool will write an essay or assignment of hundreds of words beautifully chosen and with professional-level copyediting … which of course instantly led to whole new AI tools that help teachers detect AI use, such as the website Originality.ai. Similar tools were developed when the internet came along to check for plagiarism.
And as with AI in healthcare, the technology’s use in education comes with a wide range of ethical, social, and political issues, and more will be exposed over time. The early adopters are charting new ground and often discovering best practices the hard way, by first stumbling over not-so-great practices.
In this sense, teaching is becoming more like healthcare, where ongoing education into new techniques and practices continues throughout one’s career.
3. AI and coral reefs
Coral reefs are often called “rainforests of the sea” for all they provide. Among the most biologically diverse ecosystems on the planet, the oceans’ reefs have an annual economic value of $375 billion globally, helping support more than 500 million people. But the world’s coral reefs are under severe threat, with global warming by far the biggest enemy. A 2017 UNESCO study found that half the world’s reefs died out in the past 30 years because of rising sea temperatures, and far scarier, as much as 90 percent of what’s left could die in the next 30 years, the study found.
Scientists have rushed forward with an array of technologies in response, from developing land-based coral farms to using automated drone flights to create data-rich mapping of coral damage—taking to the sky to see underwater. The latter has already been used to track coral damage along the Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of Australia.
And those drones now have AI capabilities, as well. AI will help researchers use machine learning to evaluate water temperatures, acidity, and existing marine life to pinpoint the best locations for corporal restoration. It’s believed AI will lead to much-faster restoration than ever thought possible.
Here, AI is added on top of other new technologies that emerged to fight a new
problem. Everybody on every level is thinking on their feet.
In all these cases, early adopters are either making policy or making mistakes that will result in policy—AI has become a hot political issue. Its potential dangers are one of the few things politicians from all sides of the aisle can agree on today.