Hey readers, let‘s explore the world of cognitive computing! As an experienced technology strategist, I‘m routinely asked what exactly cognitive computing entails, how it differs from traditional AI we hear so much about, where this field is heading and most importantly – why business leaders or forward-looking professionals should care.
In this comprehensive yet friendly guide, I‘ll break down exactly what makes cognitive computing unique, how it aims to simulate human cognition using multiple advanced technologies, some of its most promising applications across industries and ultimately why every organization should be paying attention even today to a field rapidly evolving. Sound good? Let‘s get started!
What Makes Cognitive Computing Different
At a basic level, cognitive computing represents an evolution in artificial intelligence towards much more human-like decision making, reasoning and interaction. But it‘s powered by a combination of supporting technologies vs any single breakthrough. Key differentiators include:
Goal of cognition: Directly tries to simulate human-style thinking patterns like creativity, emotional intelligence and conceptualization – not just statistical pattern matching.
Dynamic learning: Evolves decision making constantly based on outcomes and feedback vs running on predefined, rigid software rules.
Contextual adapting: Adjusts to shifts in environmental factors and goals to determine optimal responses tailored to fluid situations.
Probablistic guidance: Provides likelihood-based recommendations with confidence scores – similar to human hunches – rather than absolute yes/no output.
Augmentation focus: Seeks to enhance rather than replace human intelligence by providing helpful data-driven inputs to our thinking.
This is a notable leap forward from more narrowly focused AI solutions only able to excel at specific singular tasks but unable to reason holistically or explain rationale behind suggestions. But cognitive computing is a marathon moving towards more generalized artificial general intelligence – not a sprint.
5 Key Technologies Powering Modern Systems
Cognitive capabilities rely on an ensemble of technologies working together rather than any individual breakthroughs. Let‘s analyze some key sub-fields:
1. Machine Learning provides the adaptive pattern recognition and predictive analytics to self-learn without endless explicit programming. Popular techniques include deep neural networks, reinforcement learning and transfer learning.
2. Natural Language Processing (NLP) enables richer human-system interaction using linguistics and contextual parsing to understand natural speech patterns. Sentiment analysis extracts emotional cues.
3. Neural Networks modeled after the human brain‘s interconnected web of neurons interpret text/voice/vision/sensory signals as input to recognize complex patterns that evade rules-based software.
4. Robotics + Sensors combine physical mobility, coordination and object manipulation matched with computer vision and tactile feedback for situational awareness and interactions.
5. Quantum Computing offers exponential leaps in processing capacity to quickly parse possible solutions out of massive problem spaces beyond classical computing‘s reach alone enabling new self-learning breakthroughs.
As these parent fields continue rapidly innovating, so too do "children" disciplines blending approaches for greater overall capability. Think about conversational interfaces leveraging both NLP and neural networks or robotic vision analysis only made possible by graphics processing breakthroughs. Together, the technologies collaborate to mimic human cognition.
Myriad Industries Transformed by Cognitive Computing
Let‘s analyze some leading examples across domains already showcasing measurable achievements:
Finance
Upstart online lender Upstart analyzed over 1,500 data points per loan applicant to broaden approval criteria beyond FICO alone leading to 115% more approvals with 50 bps lower average loss rate vs competitors.
"Our AI model can rank the risk of default more accurately and enable many more consumers to access quality credit at affordable rates." – Dave Girouard, CEO Upstart
Healthcare
Leukemia screening by PathAI analyzes cell slide images with computer vision, detecting rare hematopathologies with 99% accuracy and 70% higher throughput, expanding life-saving early diagnosis.
"By learning from each case, we create an engine that augments clinicians in providing each patient exactly the expertise and care they need." – Dr. Andy Beck, CEO PathAI
Retail
Candy maker Mars leverages IBM Watson for real-time market, inventory and supply chain analysis combined with social media dynamics to optimize fast-moving raw material purchases and new product development boosting sales growth.
"Stockouts and write-downs have fallen over 17% yielding well over $10 million in savings plus we now have analytics to launch products likely to delight changing consumer tastes." – Leonardo Sanchez, Global Delivery Lead, Mars
And many more use cases demonstrating value creation through evidence-based recommendations across aerospace, logistics, entertainment, security, telecom, and smart cities like prioritizing commence inspection routes based on infrastructure wear modeling or dynamically pricing tolls accounting for traffic flows, weather and events to optimize road usage.
The possibilities are endless when decision making can tap datasets previously unfathomable for humans to compile let alone consistently interpret.
4 Major Benefits to Business Performance
Beyond flashy use cases, let‘s break down specific bottom-line benefits cognitive computing delivers executives care most about:
1. Revenue Growth
New monetization opportunities emerge using cognition to better personalize offerings aligning with subtle customer preference signals discovered. Companies implementing custom recommendation engines have realized 2-3x higher cross-sell & upsell revenue as one example.
2. Risk Reduction
By processing billions of weak signals in disparate data, hidden anomalies point to fraud, default or system failure risks letting staff intervene before costly escalation. 50%+ reductions in credit losses or production downtime events are common.
3. Efficiency Gains
Tedious data collection and reporting tasks needed for monitoring and audits get fully automated freeing staff to focus on high judgement roles. Back office operations see 30-50% gains in productivity without layoffs.
4. Customer Intimacy
With conversational AI supporting natural interactions via voice/text while still personalizing underlying recommendations to align with user goals/behavior, satisfaction can exceed human-only service interactions. 20-30% increases in customer loyalty metrics are possible.
And these are just scratching the surface of total long term potential as the collective technologies evolve. But managers can start driving material ROI through targeted implementations today while laying foundations for the future.
Infographic summarizing likely business benefits across key metrics – explore high potential use cases!
Of course with great potential also comes new challenges to manage…
8 Key Challenges Technology Adopters Should Address
While compelling, practitioners must enter open-eyed about notable barriers on the path ahead:
Data Governance
Sensitive decisions require robust data rights, lineage tracking, access controls and compliance transparency including roles/responsibilities for human accountability.
Unconscious Bias
Historic biases in data perpetuate unfair results without diligent model validation, audit and redress mechanisms. Oversight is mandatory.
Lack of Explainability
Inherent black box complexity around certain techniques like deep neural nets requires investment into explainable supplemental modules to instill adoption trust.
Solution Ownership
With matrices of data flows, APIs and algorithms, delineating where domain responsibility starts/stops is crucial for change management, upgrades and maintenance.
Unintended Consequences
Broader implications around employment, insurance, social biases or automation safety require constructing extra feedback loops for course correcting where needed.
Edge Case Limitations
No model handles long tail events perfectly. But hidden gaps in rare data can prove catastrophic if not exposed through rigorous adversarial testing probing security, safety and compliance edge cases.
Talent Shortages
Even with cloud services, sheer lack of qualified data science and machine learning talent can throttling scaling. Creative strategies around roles, tools and partnerships help.
Regulatory Uncertainty
Governing policies around data rights, algorithms, liability, etc. remain in flux requiring flexibility as precedent gets established. But sound ethical principles are eternal.
transformers
By acknowledging rather than ignoring these concerns, business leaders can take pragmatic steps for responsible adoption even within ambiguity – the hallmarks of wisdom.
Helpful Cognitive Computing Resources
Want to skill up on harnessing data-driven cognition? Here are helpful learning channels curated by the community:
Events & Forums
- IEEE World Congress on Cognitive Computing
- ACM Conference on AI, Ethics and Society
- AAAI/AIGlobal AI Policy Congress & Exhibition
Publications & Groups
- ACM Transactions on Cognitive Computing
- Association for the Advancement of AI
- IEEE Computational Intelligence Society
Online Courses
- Cognitive Systems Graduate Cert (University of California)
- AI Ethics and Governance (MIT)
- Optimization Methods for Machine Learning (Cornell)
Video Channels
- What‘s AI YouTube Series
- Cognitive World Conference Sessions
- IBM Technology Education Hub
Useful Books
- "The Quest for Artificial Intelligence" (Cambridge)
- "Architects of Intelligence" (Packt)
- "Prediction Machines" (HBR)
And by engaging with these communities you gain exposure to latest innovations across techniques like quantum machine learning, neuro-symbolic reasoning, trusted data ecosystems, LEGO robotics, and much more that I wish we had time to dive into!
The future is undoubtedly exciting.
In Summary, Know This…
Cognitive computing represents the next evolution of AI doing away with narrow siloed Apps and moving instead towards grander aspirations of systems that collate insights, perceive contexts, infer likely outcomes, adapt continually and reason holistically.
But it‘s a journey that will progress across years and decades relying on new breakthroughs emerging from supportive fields like machine learning, data analytics, NLP and human-centered design coalescing into collaborative ensemble solutions.
And while monumental potential exists long term to augment human intelligence and creativity, prudent businesses need not wait to capitalize on the low hanging fruit benefits unlocked even today by infusing targeted data-driven decision aids.
Now you know enough to get engaged while we let brilliant minds tackle pushing boundaries out further! Possibilities abound.
What resonated or surprised you most? Which technologies seem most promising or which applications would you be keen to implement in your organization? Love to hear your thoughts and discuss more.
To emerging cognition for the greater good!
