The future of AI in 2021

Greg Rice, Lead Software Engineer, Cognizant Softvision

“Death, Taxes and our reliance on Comma Separated Values will continue to be pervasive in the lives of software product engineers everywhere. While some have feared that CSV’s will be phased out, with many people wanting different formats considering their remote work status, we can all rest easy. CSV’s are not going anywhere. Data is bigger than ever, and clients want and need CSV’s to properly track and itemize data records.”

Shaun Walker, Technical Director and Enterprise Guildmaster, Cognizant Softvision

“There will continue to be a shift from physical offices as the hub of activity to remote working models. This will have major ripple effects on business models for companies, employees, subcontractors, geographical and legislative boundaries, physical service providers, real estate and landlords, infrastructure providers, etc. This seismic change in how we work also has the potential to negatively impact the human experience. As a result, expect innovation and new methodologies to emerge with respect to communication, collaboration, and fostering relationships and loyalty.”

Andres Angelani, CEO, Cognizant Softvision

“The biggest marketing innovation that has come out of COVID is one we’ve known about for some time, and that’s the increasing importance of having a vibrant and transparent corporate culture. The number of employees working remotely has risen markedly in the last few years, even before the pandemic forced everyone to work from home. Zoom, Slack, Facebook Workplace and other collaboration tools are helpful, but COVID-19 gave marketers inspiration and freedom to get creative in order to keep people connected and engaged, especially in a completely distributed work environment. This creativity has helped drive engagement, productivity, retention, and for many companies, recruitment. We’ll see even more investments and campaigns in 2021 that recognize success, celebrate people, and build culture.”

Snjezana Cvoro-Begovic and Jim Hartling, Cognizant Softvision. The future of AI in 2021

AI and Machine Learning technologies represent a convergence of business, humanity, and automation, and will continue to trend upward in 2021 as ‘virtual workplace’ becomes a new norm. We see several positive areas where AI/ML will positively impact our new way of working. These include searchable transcripts by topics, ideas, dates, and calls for actions. We also see benefits of incorporating digital backgrounds, and there may be ways to increase productivity by dynamically adjusting visuals depending on the mood in the video meeting. And while AI/ML implementation will bring benefits, there are a couple of significant watch outs that we need to consider as we head into 2021:

• Overlooking The Thoughtful Introvert – Sometimes the most productive and most valuable team member never says a word during a meeting. Leveraging AI to analyze meetings and respective participation issues runs the risk of overlooking the value that someone who is an introvert might provide, and even worse, alienating them due to surface data and metrics. Active participation and data are important, but only if other factors are also being considered. 
   
• Overcoming Ethnic Bias – AI, when used in areas of facial recognition, have been known to demonstrate racial bias. While the use of an emoji can be a clear indicator of enthusiasm and active participation in a meeting, AI algorithms have shown high error rates. Until there are better algorithms and systems in place, this playing field seems far from level for everyone.

There is much deserved and warranted buzz surrounding AI/ML, but as we turn the page to 2021, and look to make the most of our virtual workplace opportunities, let’s be judicious and prudent with how quickly we look to leverage the technology that’s available to potentially fix or improve something that right now is still in a nascent stage, and possibly too soon to be tinkered with.