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AI privacy concerns and limited or use cases threaten early success, say analysts

April 27, 2017

Posted by: Avadhoot Patil

Innovations in the areas of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and deep learning are beginning to dominate the technology landscape. These concepts are set to revolutionise the connected world, but the actual user experience and concerns about privacy and security are obstacles that can prevent AI from reaching its potential.

So says Strategy Analytics in a new study from their User Experience Strategies (UXS) service called, UXS Technology Planning Report: Artificial Intelligence.

It investigates the needs, behaviours and expectations of future AI consumers, has found that while the main motivation for AI is to make life more efficient with minimal effort, the number of compelling use cases for this technology is still somewhat lacking.

Home assistants are in their infancy. Due to the rush to market for some solutions, limited use cases are hindering the overall usability of AI. Furthermore, many consumers do not fully understand the scope of their existing digital assistant’s capabilities and so do not feel that they are “intelligent” because they do not realise the tasks that can be completed for them.

User awareness is key to the success of AI: education / awareness needs to be continual, functions need to be made clearer and updates need to be communicated regularly.

AI assistants also need to be able to learn passively from a user’s behaviors and provide recommendations based on these actions. This increases the compelling nature of AI, promoting greater usage as well as the potential for more AI integration and recommendation.

Christopher Dodge, associate director and report author commented, “Artificial Intelligence looks to enrich consumer lives by predicting user behavior, enhancing real world experiences, and performing specific tasks. Providing an upfront understanding of AI capabilities generates greater usage and makes the experience more useful, usable, and compelling.”

Chris Schreiner, director of Syndicated Research, UXIP added, “However, permissions need to be granted by the user to offset concerns about privacy and reduce the feeling of the device being too intrusive.

This means identifying the threshold for how much is ‘too much’ in terms of proactive engagement and recommendations. There is an immediate need for settings on frequency, type of action, & data collected.”

For the full report click here.

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