Cognitive Technologies: The next step in the evolution of IT Systems

A recent survey conducted by Deloitte points out that companies intend to invest more and more in cognitive technologies. 200 IT executives were asked to indicate in which emerging technologies they would like to invest in the near future and 64% would like to devote money and resources in the aforementioned sector. The estimated amount of investments in the cognitive technologies amounts to 31.3 billion dollars in 2019. What are the strong incentives that drive these investments? The report mentions three major opportunities that a company would have if it invested in cognitive technologies: cognitive insights, cognitive engagement and cognitive automation. The first entails having a clear view of current and probable events and maximizing the problem-solving abilities of workers by for instance finding pattern with data. The second consists in improving the services sector by providing cognitive agents with access to huge databases of information, such as answering employees HR related questions or admitting patients to hospitals. One of examples is Google Deepmind Health. The last one refers to the automatization of certain functions that require specific expertise, such as reading x-rays. For instance, Enlitic, a healthcare startup, proved that the deep learning technology they developed is  50% more capable of analyzing malignant tumors than expert radiologists. In conclusion, the striking common element that makes these investments very attractive is that cognitive technologies allow to work on data forward rather than backwards, by making statistical inferences that not only could foster the efficiency of the interested companies, but also have an impressive impact on society as the technological improvements related to artificial intelligence in the healthcare sector demonstrate.