Artificial Intelligence: From science fiction to the future engine of the economy

According to PwC's Global CEO Survey 2020, the vast majority of business leaders believe that the artificial intelligence revolution will have even more impact on society than the advent of the internet. Perceived as a human-like intelligence, AI is actually quite different. The AI eco-system includes several scientific fields: machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, robotics and automatic language processing (voice assistance, among others). The detection of moving objects (linked to autonomous driving) seems to be the most promising market. There is also great potential in facial recognition, satellite image processing, algorithmic trading and surgery. According to Omdia, artificial intelligence software is expected to be worth $126 billion in revenue by 2025 (i.e. tomorrow), compared to only $22.6 billion in 2020. A rapidly expanding market with a growth rate of 41% annualized over 5 years. And in 2030, 70% of companies will be using AI in their daily tools. It might be worth it to focus on the companies that can benefit the most. The leaders in AI innovation are the US and China. According to LexisNexis' 2020 PatentSight study, Chinese companies and organizations are the most active in this sector and are catching up to their U.S. counterparts. Of the companies with the most machine learning-related patents, four are American, four are Chinese, and one is South Korean. Let's take a closer look at the companies with the most AI-related progress in the world: