AI – The Future of Cloud Computing
Matt Archer
January 26, 2021
What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
Artificial Intelligence (or AI for short) “…refers to the end result of endowing machines with the intellectual prowess peculiar to humans, the ability to reason, learn from the past, discover meaning, or generalize.”[1] Through a process called Machine Learning (ML), achieved by running data through certain algorithms to train particular systems about aspects you want them to learn, it’s possible to train an AI to predict and manage simple and complex systems.
This used to be something that only the rich or technologically capable to hope to achieve, but in the modern, evolving cloud environment it’s becoming easier and easier to find pre-existing AIs to fit your company’s needs, or find cost-effective methods to train an AI to manage aspects of your unique business process.
One of the major challenges with AI is finding the right algorithm and data to train it on to potentially solve for whatever your challenges are. Luckily, programmers are continuing to find new ways to train AIs for others to utilize through the large amounts of data accessible in the cloud. This, in turn, helps the AI to be more accurate while also providing more accessibility for other companies to utilize them.
Cloud Computing and AI make sense together
Due to the aforementioned amount of data storage and accessibility, the cloud is arguably one of the best places to take advantage of the power of AI in order to help your business, regardless of size or budget.
As Bernard Marr from Forbes Magazine mentions, “Cloud-based as-a-service platforms enable users on just about any budget and with any level of skill to access machine learning functions such as image recognition tools, language processing, and recommendation engines. Cloud will continue to allow these revolutionary toolsets to become more widely deployed by enterprises of all sizes and in all fields, leading to increased productivity and efficiency.”[2]
That these toolsets can be accessed and distributed in the cloud allows any company to take advantage of them for their own purposes.
Additionally, in recent years AI has become a dominant trend in the computing landscape in its own right. The AI budget could reach $89 billion by 2025[3] and a large portion of that may occur as AI powers cloud computing through improving data management, and AI self-managed cloud. As two large players in the tech space, and so much synergy with each other, it just makes sense to combine AI and Cloud computing together.
Benefits of AI in the Cloud Computing Space
AI is going to continue to improve and innovate into a game changer across the cloud landscape, increasing efficiency, spotting areas of concern, fixing problems before they start and more. Some other areas that AI can assist with in the cloud space are:
Increased productivity
AIs can often handle simple, repetitive tasks much more quickly than a human user, allowing those tasks to get completed more quickly and efficiently, but also allowing those human users to focus on more important tasks, increasing productivity in both areas.
Cost Effectiveness
AIs can save money once programmed sufficiently to manage certain aspects of the business, such as forecasting future trends based on past data, completing simple and complex tasks in an efficient manner and managing day to day functions of applications behind the scenes. All of these tasks no longer need to be done by a human user, saving money in the long term.
Reliability
AI doesn’t have bad days and doesn’t take days off. It functions as well as it’s programmed, allowing you to create something that can continue to manage aspects of your business indefinitely as long as you have power and internet.
Availability
AI is becoming more readily available, especially with the surge of migration into the cloud over the past year. Usually, they require high performance CPUs and GPUs to work at their maximum potential. While these can sometimes still be expensive, it’s easier than ever for the average user to get their hands on a set-up that can handle running a standard AI.
Assistance (AI assistant)
AI Assistants, such as Zoho’s ZIA, are becoming more popular because they allow users at your company to quickly access exactly what they need be typing into a chat bar or saying voice commands. This saves time and money, and also allows people to more quickly find out what to do and how to do it without having to go look for the answers someplace else.
AI assistants are also becoming popular because they work behind the scenes within the applications they’re a part of to help optimize those applications for their users. ZIA, for example, can be trained to “…learn and adapt to your domain-specific conventions and phrases in minutes.”[4] This kind of technology can be game-changing because it checks all the boxes above from productivity, cost savings, reliability and availability.
Final Thoughts
Positive Results™ was an early adopter of cloud computing and continues to find ways to innovate in the tech space to help our clients. We saw the power of the cloud, just as we see the potential of AI to provide noticeable gains for SMBs when
implemented correctly. We specialize in analyzing a company’s business process to find any gaps and determine what solutions (including AI) would best fit into their infrastructure and how best to utilize them.
As a partner of companies like Zoho, RingCentral and Dropbox, we utilize the cloud structure to assist with CRM, Unified Communications, and Document Management.
We recommend workflows, algorithms and areas that it makes sense to incorporate AI for speed, efficiency and cost effectiveness for your business.
If you have additional questions or need support, contact us at:
Positive Results™ Custom Business Solutions
440.499.4944
[1] https://www.goodfirms.co/blog/role-of-ai-in-cloud-computing
[2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2020/11/02/the-5-biggest-cloud-computing-trends-in-2021/
[3] https://www.statista.com/statistics/607716/worldwide-artificial-intelligence-market-revenues/
