Leonardo Correa: AI is currently more oriented towards mathematics and statistical models than robots

Illustration by Diego Zuñiga

The adoption of Artificial Intelligence is increasing. In the 2021 State of AI report by McKinsey, 56% of respondents reported AI adoption in at least one business function, up from 50 percent in 2020.

Companies are trying to stay ahead of the curve, but there is still some confusion regarding the current state of AI.

We spoke to Leonardo, Academic Director of the Technology School at the Universidad Creativa, about recent advances in Artificial Intelligence and some of the misconceptions people have.

Which AI trend will have the greatest commercial impact in the near future?

Performance Marketing, Market Research, and Finance are three areas in which AI will have an even greater impact in the coming years.

In the current model, pixels and data resulting from advertising campaigns are a valuable input in the development of optimization strategies for these campaigns. Markets, ads, and audiences can be adjusted automatically or through predictions that AI algorithms can use and analyze in near real time. Investment can then be targeted more efficiently.

In Market Research, AI systems can intelligently search for data and connect information between current and potential customers to analyze trends in that market and to think about the production of new products. In this way, research time and costs can be reduced.

The use of AI in finance, specifically in trending assets like cryptocurrencies, can make these technologies allies for potential investors by helping them analyze and predict market supply and demand.

Recently there has been a lot of media coverage about the benefits of AI in different sectors, but also a lot of confusion about the problems that this technology really solves.

In your opinion, what is the greatest misconception people have regarding Artificial Intelligence?

The main confusion comes from movies that generally portray an overly futuristic idea of AI often associated with robots. AI is currently more oriented towards mathematics and statistical models than robots.

So, when people hear about developments in AI, they picture a bot as a physical robot instead of a piece of software that performs mathematical calculations to provide parameters that help in decision making.

Much of our future has been set by what science fiction has dictated, however we still have several steps to get there.