Van AI tot data: 5 toepassingen die jouw wereld gaan veranderen
21/08/2018

AI to data: 5 applications that will change your world

Industry 4.0, digital revolution and smart industry are terms that you hear through all sorts of channels virtually every day. What they actually entail can vary from clever new tweaks to mind-blowing innovations. In this blog, we will focus on a number of new technologies that are set to bring about a drastic change in how we work and think in the coming years. Let’s take a peak at the future and share our perspectives.

Welcome to part 2 of delaware’s three-part blog about the evolution of information management and the impact on how it is used, including its effects on our business processes. In the first part, we looked at the situation today, with systems failing to meet the needs and expectations of their users dangerously often. In this part, we will see how technological evolution can be a helping hand in several information management use cases.

Blockchain, artificial intelligence and machine learning, augmented and virtual reality and robotics: an endless stream of new innovations that doesn’t look like drying up any time soon. Not all of them are entirely new, but they are becoming increasingly ingrained in our daily lives, both professionally and personally. Take the Waze navigation app, for instance, whose users are unwittingly training an AI to become better at helping other users. Another example is the Ikea Place app, which lets you see whether furniture will fit in your living room or bedroom by means of augmented reality. Let’s take a deep-dive! 

Data

When Monday comes around and we’ve just finished the morning’s marathon meeting and are all looking forward to lunch, it’s time to upload the meeting report into a document management system. It’s a task that few people enjoy. It’s not surprising that we’re not all that enthusiastic about uploading the report. After all, much of the information has already been structured, which means that it should allow for automatic processing. This is a perfect example of an area in which artificial intelligence can be applied. A system can be designed to recognise the document type when it’s uploaded and to automatically assign metadata or tags accordingly. In fact, the more information we add, the more accurate the system will become. This will not just reduce workload for the users, but will ultimately also increase the quality and thus the usability of the data!

AI

The same technology can be used to recognise images. An AI engine is already used to process your Facebook holiday snaps, which helps you tag them, but also maps all elements that can be found in the picture for more accurately targeted advertising.

Blockchain

Blockchain, a digital distributed ledger, also has a host of new opportunities to offer besides cryptocurrency. It might also be used, for example, to create a digital archive that complies with local and European standards or as a tool to prove the authenticity of certain documents, such as certificates. Take research companies which produce scientific output that can serve as the basis for patents every single day. In order to maintain their competitive edge, these documents are sent to a notary to make them official on a daily basis. This creates a record that can be used as evidence in case of a potential lawsuit. Blockchain offers a perfect alternative to the traditional notary public by using an automatic process at the end of each day, to anchor the documents in question in a blockchain by means of a hash key.

Augmented reality

In the manufacturing industry, augmented reality is starting to pop up increasingly often, usually as an experiment. It's becoming more and more realistic for technicians to perform maintenance using a Hololens. These specialists are effectively given access to a comprehensive digital cockpit that provides them with real-time information about the device and access to a wealth of information, including technical blueprints, safety instructions and other technical documentation. It is important, however, to ensure that all these resources are managed centrally and linked to all applicable installations to allow for holistic information access.

Analytics

Finally, we are seeing a sub-domain appearing under analytics and reporting. Using so-called content analytics, which is driven by machine learning, all sorts of information can be retrieved from unstructured data, such as documents. Take algorithms that are capable of evaluating the as-built situation of your blueprints, for instance, based on maintenance details and the contents of the drawings in question, or algorithms that allow for automatic identification of personal data, which has been a hot topic ever since the introduction of GDPR legislation. In fact, sentiment analysis can be performed on all e-mails received by your customer service department, or even on a recording of a customer service phone call, to help determine how the case can best be routed. These applications no longer belong to the realm of science fiction, but have become reality. All that stands in our way is our imagination.

What does the future look like?

There are endless possibilities, and we hope that we’ve been able to stimulate you to look at your organization from a different perspective. In the next blog, we’ll be talking about how content & information management solutions that are already on the marketplace are adapting in order to meet changing customer demands and to harness new technological developments.
Find out moreGet in Touch