Almost all tech savvy people these days know about the potential of cloud computing technology and how cloud platform has already affected businesses by effectively storing data and balancing the existing workloads. Because cloud computing is a cutting-edge technology, a lot of companies need time to think and understand how cloud will continue to rise with time.

Cloud technology saw major changes when change in trends when mobile phones started replacing computers and the Internet of Things (IoT) platform came into picture. The Next Big Thing now is to see how Artificial Intelligence (AI) improvises cloud considering the way cloud technology has improvised AI development.

According to a research by IBM, one of the biggest cloud companies, the union of AI and cloud “insures to be a means to accelerate change and also be a source of innovation”. The cloud can provide AI systems with all the information they need and at the same time AI systems can provide information which can give cloud more data. The AI-cloud union can escalate the rate at which AI is developing, and the determination of cloud giants to research into AI shows that these are not just words. A study by IBM titled ‘The cognitive advantage’ discloses that about 65 per cent of early adopters consider AI to be an important factor for their organization’s success. And more than half say that AI is essential for digital transformation. As the capabilities of AI rise, so will the demand for cloud technology.

Artificial Intelligence enabled by cloud

About 90% of early cloud adopters claim that cloud technology will play an important role in their Artificial Intelligence initiatives in the coming years. And more than 55% of users chose cloud-based services and are leveraging SaaS and PaaS to execute and deploy AI-infused cloud results- IBM study, “The cognitive advantage.

The early adopters have also shared their experiences claiming that enabling cloud technology will play a significant role in AI adoption. Hence, we can say that pervasive AI is supported by pervasive cloud.

AI in the cloud today

We have seen a giant amount of investment on the capabilities of AI in the cloud platforms in the last few years. With tech-giants like Google, Amazon and Microsoft leading the charge, many PaaS solutions have also started integrating AI abilities. After analyzing the present-day scenario of the cloud-AI technology, we can classify it into two major groups:

• Cloud Machine Learning (ML) Platforms: Modern day technologies like AWS ML, Azure ML and the upcoming Google Cloud ML use a specific technology that is held responsible for powering the creation of Machine Learning models. But excepting Google Cloud ML that leverages TensorFlow can be difficult because a large number of cloud ML technologies won’t permit implementation of AI programs coded in conventional AI.
• AI Cloud Services: Technologies that support AI platform for business like IBM Watson, Google Cloud Vision, Microsoft Cognitive Services or Natural Language application programming interfaces allow abstract complex AI capabilities via simple API calls. Using this you can incorporate AI capabilities without investing in sophisticated AI infra.

The AI technologies are bound to evolve with time and cloud platforms will switch from the level of basic support for AI capabilities to a much flexible model where AI programs are as widely supported as web and databases function today.

Can AI power the next phase of cloud technology?

The cloud technology is a well-established technology trend that is majorly ruled by IT companies like ESDS, Google, Amazon, etc. AI definitely carries unique features that can influence various next generations of cloud computing platforms. AI requires support for brand new programming paradigms and also needs a new computing infrastructure. So, we can expect AI capabilities to be held and incorporated by the cloud as a principle element of its infrastructures. Also we can expect to see the advent of a new generation of cloud platforms powered by AI. Maybe, we are entering the era of the AI-first cloud.

How to transform your business with artificial intelligence in the cloud?

A form of AI that businesses are increasingly resorting to are Chatbots that enhance their online presence. ESDS’ new chatbot service for the banking and other sectors hinges on Natural Language Processing system. This makes conversations with chatbots more ‘real’ since they are enriched with Neural Networking, predicting user-intent and executing the required dialog flow.

Similarly, businesses these days undeniably need Artificial Intelligence. Business proprietors need AI technology to improvise the way they operate and help keep them ahead of their competitors. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2016 survey, the greatest benefit of AI technology is the ability to improve efficiency of the businesses. This also means that AI can comprise of tedious tasks like predictive maintenance, product design, or streamlining logistics and cloud can make AI easier and cheaper to be executed. Demand for data scientists is rapidly increasing, and it will exceed supply to more than 50% in the next few years. Early AI adopters also expect that AI should solve the existing scarcity of data science talent. Business owners want AI to help them visualize, analyze, and strategize around large sets of data and AI is found to fill the gap by enabling the processing of big data. A survey held in 2016 by Narrative Science found that businesses and tech executives who used AI conveyed higher confidence in their ability to use big data.

The combination of AI and cloud is shaping up to be a disruptive force across a lot of industry verticals. A survey by the Transparency Market Research predicted that by using ‘machine learning (ML) as a service’ the market is expected to grow from $1.07 bn in 2016 to $19.86 bn by 2025. This AI-cloud relation not only creates a new way of thinking about other existing technologies and methodologies but also brings a new degree of accessibility to AI technology. Thanks to cloud, AI technology is now available for your businesses. And this is not a myth or just an idea. This is real and truly functional. Talking about the evolution of AI, it hasn’t arrived fully. There are still a lot of challenges on the way for AI technology. But experimentation is the best way of overcoming these challenges. Cloud and AI are digitally converting the way we interact with the world.