Processing AI in the Cloud

Whether your business is actively considering how to implement machine learning or artificial intelligence, or you’re simply aware these forms of tech are on their way to widespread adoption, in this post, we’re going to briefly touch on how you would go about implementing AI technology for your business.

Why Implement AI Cloud?

Artificial intelligence in the cloud is likely to transform how entire businesses and sectors operate. The fact that AI is really just beginning to see adoption at scale means that, almost always, it will be implemented using the cloud, taking advantage of the usual benefits.

Because of this, you can gain easy and virtual access to programs, services and hardware that would prove rather pricey if you were to invest in it on-premise.

With AI cloud services, you can tap into artificial intelligence programming without having to create it yourself. It is something that is becoming more heavily used and is poised to grow quickly in coming years. It means for businesses wanting to experiment, there’s a very low barrier to entry to getting underway, and it doesn’t have to disrupt normal tech operations.

For example, Microsoft’s cognitive services provide intelligent algorithms to meet user needs which can be easily bolted onto your existing systems. If a customer has a problem with your website, they could chat with an AI bot. If they require further help or something more complex, a real customer service executive is alerted to take over.
Features like the emotion API crawl through images to find and recognize displays of human emotion. Anger, contempt, disgust, fear, happiness, neutral, sadness and surprise are identified in videos or photos. You could track user emotion and alter their experience to ensure happiness versus anger or disgust, providing all-new insights for businesses.

Using AI cloud gives you better interaction with your clients, without having to invest the human time or resources. When your tech can learn, you can tailor it to your company, your clients and your goals.

How to Implement AI Cloud

Once there’s a solid and agreed usecase, it’s time to understand how to implement it for success.

Forty percent of respondents in The State of AI for Enterprises report predicted implementation roadblocks owing to this problem. So as is often the case, not having the right IT infrastructure can halt you in your tracks.

You also need the right talent. The same report showed 34 percent of respondents worrying about lack of appropriate staff to handle AI. This is where the cloud focus of AI becomes so appealing. It does not require in-house infrastructure and its associated investment. AI services can be bolted onto existing public cloud infrastructure easily, optimised and ready to go.

Investing in the right cloud provider and its services is an investment in the future. When you work with an flexible cloud provider interested in pushing your business forward with its use of AI, you are, in fact, future proofing. Forget buying expensive infrastructure, hiring high salary experts, and taking on a lot of risk. Instead, you reaching today’s goals while setting your company up with resources that shift and grow as you do.

That being said, you should do your best to avoid platform and vendor lock-in. Understand what your cloud service provider has to offer, and make sure it meets your goals before you sign on. Have an exit plan, in writing. Work to keep your own resources and programs flexible so you can shift to a new provider if need be.

Sometimes a hybrid cloud approach is an effective way to avoid lock-in. Depending on your company’s needs, you may not have to stick with one provider or service for everything.

Transformative Strategies for the AI Cloud

Above all, when you begin implementing AI, remember that you are undergoing digital transformation. This is not something you do once and move on from. Transformation is a mindset. It’s an ongoing journey. It will likely never end, because instead of trying to follow steps to get from point A to point B, you are able to tweak and adjust, learning from emerging approaches and advances in tech.

Adopting AI cloud services is part of your company’s journey. It can touch on all levels and all teams within your organisation. Everyone has to be on board, from your tech team up to the board members and C-suite. Instead of working in silos, you will achieve transformative change through collaboration.

Being ready and willing to adopt changes in tech as they reach adoption allows you to remain competitive. Instead of scrambling to keep up – and feeling disrupted – you can lead the way and do the disrupting. The right analysis will show you where time, effort and money is wasted and where AI can assist ease this. This can be viewed at a departmental level and with the right cloud provider, process and applications can be built to meet your growing needs.

AI is set to become a major part of what companies do across a wide range of industries and applications. Now is the time to start planning your approach.

The history of artificial intelligence is long and storied. AI is also no longer something that is out of reach for smaller companies, or those without a lot of in-house tech talent. In fact, smaller companies can often move faster, so with readily available AI tools out there, there’s a real chance to compete.

Whether your company is new to cloud computing, looking into AI, or making plans to run a cloud-first operation, we can help. Our high-performance cloud platform is perfect for running machine learning systems and our advisory capacity is on-hand to help you get from idea to inception. Connect with us to find out how we can help you reach your goals.