It felt like I was living a dream. I got to spend 4 days in Las Vegas talking about Artificial Intelligence at Amazon's Re:MARS conference. MARS stands for Machine Learning, Automation, Robotics, and Space. If you know me, you know how much I love all those things (and Vegas).
Over the course of 3 blog posts, I hit on some of the key takeaways of the event, and how the latest trends in the industry will impact your business.
Part 3: What's Next - Mind Blowing AI Use Cases (this one)
The future of artificial intelligence is bright! I’m very excited to share with you some of the more eye-opening use cases that I came across at Re:MARS.
A Smarter, Smoother Talking Alexa
Alexa will become more conversational and more proactive. Think of her as the best personal assistant you’ve ever had. Tell her you're interested in going to a movie, and she'll talk you through purchasing your movie tickets, reserving the Uber to take you to the movies, and then reserving your table for dinner via OpenTable after making suggestions based on your preferences. Through a number of partnerships and continuous learning Alexa will only become more ingrained in our day-to-day activities. She only keeps getting smarter.
An Immersive Sports Viewing Experience
Keep an eye out while you’re watching NFL or MLB games this fall for Amazon's artificial intelligence providing you an enhanced viewing experience. For example, during baseball games, real-time AI predicts the likelihood of a runner stealing second base based on their speed, the distance of their lead, the pitcher's and catcher's throwout rates, and other factors. For NFL games, Amazon's AI can tell you the likelihood of a pass being successfully completed based on how open a receiver is, the speed they're running at, the throw trajectory, and other factors. They aren’t quite yet at Tony Romo's level of predicting plays but that’s probably not too far away.
Rise of the Robots
In the world of robotics, AI and advancements in robotic dexterity is changing the way robots are used in assembly line or warehouse situations. Believe it or not, one of the biggest challenges facing robotics today is the problem of identifying objects and gripping them in a human-like fashion. Today, companies are testing new dexterities with computer vision and varying degrees of tactile ability to determine how an item should be grasped. For example how a robot grasps a carton of eggs versus grasping a door for a vehicle should be very different. A lot of smart teams are working on solving this. Once this is solved the use case for robots becomes incredibly huge.
Amazon Reveals Their Go-To-Market Drone
We've all heard a lot of talk about Amazon's drones that will be used for delivering products to doorsteps. What we haven't heard about is the level of complexity and innovation needed to make it all happen. Using computer vision and AI, the drone can identify flight impediments better than the human eye. For example, the drone is able to spot electrical or clothes wires, dogs, bushes, people from thousands of feet away, thus altering their approach and preventing a major issue. Not to mention the great lengths that Amazon went into to optimize flight patterns and keep propeller noise to a non-disturbing hum.
StyleSnap Someone to Buy Their Outfit
Amazon unveiled a new feature to their store - StyleSnap. StyleSnap will use AI to make fashion recommendations from Amazon based on user-submitted photos. To use StyleSnap, users click on the camera icon in the corner of the Alexa app and take a photo of the fashion look they hope to replicate. Amazon will then respond with a list of recommendations of similar items. By relying on deep-learning technology, StyleSnap can distinguish between different styles of clothing such as fit and flare dresses or flannel shirts, going beyond just parsing out color or pattern. People are calling this the Shazam of fashion.
Bringing It To a Close
That's a wrap on my experience at Re:MARS 2019. If you love AI as much as I do, I highly recommend you go next year. You can find more info here.
In the mean time, just know that Louder Co. helps you discover applications for AI that will revolutionize the way you do business so you can become a better performing version of yourself. We make AI even easier, really.
Curious about how AI can work for you? We offer a free 1-hour strategy session here. You’ll leave our conversation with a few very tangible ideas.
You can also find our Intro to AI deck here.
Your guide,
Andrew