Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, famously said, “Software is eating the world, but AI is going to eat software.” Somehow, most of the events in the artificial intelligence world are still happening behind the scenes. The end consumer’s life is changing, but without them realizing it. The number of enterprise and B2B AI applications far exceeds direct consumer applications. This is clear in this year’s Forbes AI company top-50 list where there were only two companies (Duolingo and Sleek) focused solely on consumer applications of AI.
Despite this, we still see huge investments from tech giants when it comes to consumer AI applications. From quickly checking the weather to controlling smart home devices, virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant have become a part of many people’s lives. The simplicity and convenience offered by these devices are unprecedented, but these assistants’ inner workings are far from simple. Features such as detecting the phrase “Okay Google” from a particular user’s voice, understanding their language and, most importantly, understanding the context of commands are just the beginning of these devices’ innovations.
If I ask Google assistant, “Who is Tom Cruise? How old is he? Could you give me the names of some of his movies?” The AI behind the Google assistant “remembers” the context from my first question. It understands that we are asking about Tom Cruise and provides answers in the context of Tom Cruise for the upcoming queries. Even for questions like “Shall I take my umbrella with me today?” it understands the context of the question. All of this would not be possible without years of research spent developing the underlying AI.
Similarly, live caption is a feature that auto-generates subtitles for any speech in audio or video in real time. Services like YouTube extensively use this feature to create captions in multiple languages for their videos; Android and iOS also have it as an accessibility feature for people with hearing difficulties. Although it is helpful for people with visual disabilities, it has broad applicability beyond that as well.
For example, if someone is attending a video conference meeting from a noisy or crowded public space where they cannot turn up the volume or hear what others are saying, live captioning would enable them to understand the discussion and participate in the meeting. Given the size and nature of the consumer market, it is evident that there is a massive opportunity for consumer applications powered by AI. So then, why are only a handful of startups and privately-owned companies focusing on direct-to-consumer AI applications? We need to see more growth in this area.
For companies hoping to jump into this realm of AI, I have a few suggestions. Consumer-focused AI products need to build as if they are painkillers and not vitamins. In essence, they need to solve a problem that consumers already have instead of solving for just convenience. Solving for existing problems will guarantee a much faster adoption rate than solving for something that is just nice to have. I would love to see someone automate my calendar management instead of turning a bulb on and off. Startups solving such problems will enable consumers to see the power of AI outside the ecosystem of tech giants.
We at my company believe that we are still in the early days of the AI wave. It is similar to the internet wave back in the late 1990s — where the internet craze was there among investors and entrepreneurs, but the internet was still a mystery to most people. In the last decade and a half, many new internet applications were launched, making the internet the lifeblood of the 21st century. We believe a similar pattern will happen with AI, making consumer AI ripe for entrepreneurial opportunities.
Source: forbes.com
