Artificial intelligence has affected our everyday lives, and we realize it isn’t a scary concept as people once thought of it. Every year, we see AI introducing new ways to engage users, drives sales and make the processes convenient. In the past years, we witnessed the popularity and effectiveness of AI bots and how they made our lives and jobs easier.

Companies in 2019 have been able to access and implement this life-changing technology.

Look around yourself if you don’t trust me and note all kinds of interesting AI uses. But what’s next now? What’s new in the world of AI in 2019 and ahead? What artificial intelligence trends will be looked upon beyond 2019?

Let’s quickly find out more AI trends that are expected to make a mark in 2019 and beyond.

Image Recognition

Technology has come down to the level that computers not only understand your speech but they are also able to ‘see’ and ‘recognize’ with the help of ‘image recognition’. It is the ability of computers to acquire, process and analyze data from visual sources. Thanks to artificial intelligence, that has become possible.

Image recognition has various uses including the ability to detect license plates, allow photo analysis for payment completion or other verification. It can help businesses improve their marketing to a great level. We see it as a rising trend in 2019 and ahead.

Advanced AI Assistants

We have been facilitated by voice assistants like Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and other devices, for a long time now. Till now, these voice assistants have been performing basic tasks like searching and playing the requested song, and making a call, etc. But we expect to witness big changes in the things AI assistants will perform in 2019. AI assistants will be able to perform more individualized experiences as soon as they get better at identifying different users’ voices. So rather than just speaking to our mobile or AI home device, we predict we will be able to speak to our cars, TV, even refrigerators.

AI-Powered Conversational Search

Since the advent of voice search, the way in which users search online has transformed for the past few years. Users now speak a query instead of typing. Voice search is an emerging trend and as soon as people start using AI-powered assistants more often and in new ways, conversational AI-powered search will hold the grip. By new ways, we mean customers will speak of their queries in a more conversational way. As a result, AI-powered search engine will not only provide the number of listings, but it will also facilitate us with more conversational answers. In simpler words, the way users will be provided with the search results will become more advanced.

Conversational Chatbots and Virtual Agents

We are all familiar with the usability of chatbots contributing to customer services. A mainstream example is easily ordering a burger or a pizza through Facebook chatbots. Gartner predicts ‘By 2020, 85% of customer interactions will be handled without a human.’

So, 2019 will be the year where we will see initiation of some major advancements in chatbots. We expect to see customers speak to chatbots just like they would to a live chat agent.

Chatbots will be strengthened with more functionalities, as customers will be able to speak to chatbots just like they would to any chat agent. Therefore, companies along with simple chatbots will be focusing on implementing human-like virtual agents too. More business proprietors will be using conversational chatbots and virtual agents for customer services so that users do not have to pass to a real-life staffer.

Smart Recommendations

When you shop online, various websites give you recommendations, based on the history of purchases that you have made or browsed. We now expect to see these recommendations become even smarter. AI will be able to provide better recommendation than before based on the tone and sentiment of the customers which will be received as a result of advanced voice search along with their browsing history. Companies will then be providing guided and more personalized shopping experience.

Cyber Defense

It is a real menace for business owners to prevent cloud infrastructure, the internet of things devices and software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms from cybercriminals. Nevertheless, artificial intelligence will make it easier for you and ward off cyber threats and hackers. AI cyber defense catches the subtle indicators of any unusual activity that takes place and protects your system early or before the threat becomes uncontrollable. Various companies have started using AI and machine learning to uncover cybercriminals and identify threats before they cause any damage.

Last words…

These are some of the most useful and exciting AI trends that are expected to score a mark in 2019 and beyond. We expect to see multiple others down the road. People have begun embracing AI rather than being skittish because of the efficiency and convenience it has brought to the world. It possesses the potential to transform the way things are done. We’ve seen AI revamping domains like digital marketing, CRM and others. We will witness more companies implementing this life-changing technology in the years to come.