Why is AI so useless for business?
AI gets such a bad rap. People only think of unsolved or sort-of-solved problems as AI, and don't give AI any credit for the problems it has solved, I guess because by definition those problems seem easy.<p>Think how much Microsoft Office and competitors have amplified business productivity over the last 20 years (yeah yeah, make your jokes too). Word and Powerpoint and Excel are full of AI whether it's spellcheck or auto-fill, drawing algorithms like "fill with color", etc. So many things that were AI research papers of the 70s, 80s, or 90s. And those innovations continue today.<p>Logistics companies rely on huge amounts of optimization and problem-solving. Finding routes for drivers and deliveries, planning schedules, optimizing store layouts, etc. -- that's AI.<p>Employees use AI tools to improve their lives and productivity whether it's a rideshare or maps app to get to work, speech-to-text, asking Siri for answers, translating web pages, etc. All of this comes out of research in AI or related fields.<p>How many office jobs <i>don't</i> require someone to use a search engine to find and access information related to a query? Information retrieval is one million percent AI.<p>Robotics and automated manufacturing has been huge for a long time -- robotics is closely connected AI and related problems like control theory.<p>The best applications of AI have almost always been to support and enhance human decisionmaking, not replace it.