From new players to established ones, here is how companies around the globe are making strides in the arena of artificial intelligence!
Technological developments are driven by the human need to make life easier and complete tasks faster and more efficiently. The drastic growth of technology in recent years has paved the way for artificial intelligence (AI) to become an integral part of almost every industry—from education and lifestyle to music and sports. It is everywhere. And by the looks of it, it is here to stay.
AI is the ability of computers or computer-controlled devices to perform tasks that usually require human intelligence. Big tech companies, such as Google and Meta, are incorporating AI into their products and services and developing new platforms to provide AI services to customers worldwide. Here, we have rounded up some of the top AI companies in the world based on their market presence, research and development and products and services.
Amazon
Amazon is a well-established e-commerce brand throughout the world. It flourished in the AI landscape in 2006 after introducing Amazon Web Services (AWS), its comprehensive cloud-computing platform that offers a range of AI-powered cloud services, including machine learning and natural language processing.
Since AWS partnered with Formula One (F1) in 2018, it has been providing detailed analytics to help fans understand the split-second decisions made during the races. All 20 cars on the grid have close to 120 sensors, each collecting data and generating 3 GB of it throughout a race. In a sport that is so data-driven, F1 streams this real-time race data collected by the sensors to AWS through its Amazon Kinesis service, which helps teams capture and process key performance data on the track.
The company also has several AI-powered consumer products, such as the Amazon Echo smart speaker and the Amazon Go cashier-less store.
Google (under parent company Alphabet Inc.) is a leader in the AI industry, with its DeepMind subsidiary at the forefront of cutting-edge research and development in the field. The search engine tech company has a number of AI-powered products and services, including Google Assistant, Google Translate and Google Photos. It also has a consumer product similar to the Amazon Echo called Google Home.
Google became an official partner of the McLaren F1 Team in March 2022. This partnership paired the engineering excellence of McLaren’s F1 cars with its technology to help maximize race-day performance.
Microsoft
Another big tech company that is making strides in the AI landscape is the software company Microsoft. It has a strong presence in the industry, with its Azure cloud platform offering a range of AI-powered services, including machine learning and computer vision. Computer vision is a field of AI that enables computers to gather, understand and interpret digital media and extract useful information from them.
Microsoft is also doing its bit for the environment. It developed an AI tool, PrevisIA, in collaboration with Brazilian non-profit Amazon and mining company Vale Fund. PrevisIA tracks activities that can lead to and areas that are prone to deforestation. The Microsoft Azure cloud software is then used to study satellite images from the Amazon forests to forecast areas where deforestation seems likely. Microsoft intends to collaborate with local governments in these areas and use PrevisIA’s data to prevent deforestation.
Much like AWS, Azure also provides a broad range of cloud services and offers four different forms of cloud computing: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Software-as-a-Service Service (SaaS) and serverless functions. The company has several AI-powered products, including:
- Microsoft Bot Framework: This software development kit (SDK) allows developers to easily create conversational chatbots, relaying information between the user’s bot-connected app and the bot.
- Microsoft Cognitive Services suite: This offers AI services that allow developers to build cognitive intelligence into apps without having direct AI and data-science knowledge.
Microsoft announced a ten-year partnership with the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) in December 2022. The partnership will include Microsoft migrating LSEG’s data and analytics platform, Workspace, to its cloud built on Azure. They will work on advancing workspace and integrating it with Microsoft Teams. According to Microsoft CEO and Chairman Satya Nadella, these advancements will “fundamentally transform how financial institutions research, interact, and transact across asset classes, and adapt to changing market conditions”.
IBM
IBM is a pioneer in AI, with its question-answering Watson AI platform being used in various applications, including healthcare, finance and customer service. The company also has a number of AI-powered products, including:
- IBM Watson Knowledge Studio: This uses custom models to teach IBM Watson the language of your domain by identifying relationships unique to your industry.
- IBM Watson Discovery Service: This product processes unstructured documents and provides content analysis that drives better decision-making.
In October 2022, IBM expanded its embeddable Watson AI software portfolio to include three new libraries that are designed to facilitate the process of AI adoption for partners and clients. A software library is a collection of data and programming code used to develop applications and software. Partners and clients also have the liberty to embed these libraries into their applications to develop customized products without data science expertise. The new libraries include IBM Watson Natural Language Processing Library, IBM Watson Speech-to-Text Library and IBM Watson Text-to-Speech Library.
NVIDIA
NVIDIA is a leading provider of graphics processing units (GPUs) for AI and deep learning applications. The company’s GPU technology is used in various AI products and services, including self-driving cars and cloud-based machine learning platforms.
In December 2022, Deutsche Bank—one of the world’s leading investment banks and financial service providers—partnered with NVIDIA to embed AI and machine learning into the financial services sector. Using the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software, both parties aim to develop applications to improve risk management, boost efficiency and enhance customer service.
AI is an industry that sees new developments every day. Many other companies are making significant contributions to the field of AI, and the landscape is constantly evolving as new players emerge and established players expand their AI offerings.
So read:
Header image by Pexels
