One of the leading trends on Twitter is Artificial Intelligence (AI). This isn’t surprising given all the buzz these days about anything having to do with machine learning, algorithms, data analysis, etc. But as usual, the trend only scratches the surface. The real question we should be asking is whether or not the fact that AI is getting lots of mentions on social media reflects any genuine understanding of what it is and how best to use it?
At the very least, we can’t be certain that the trends indicate anything quite so positive as actual understanding of the issue. The very fact the term AI is popular helps drive it getting more mentions. Popularity begets popularity. It’s like this with any popular buzzword. A thing is perceived to be important so a lot of people trying to get attention or appear relevant will just start using it without any real understanding. Even if the person throwing around the buzzword understands it, he probably isn’t helping others to do so. There is a hilarious scene in the movie, New in Town that illustrates how silly this can be. The new manager (played by Renee Zellweger) at a food plant is trying to win over the employees by giving them a typical board room presentation, but at the local bar. They literally turn it into a drinking game, taking a drink every time she uses a buzzword (with a double for every one with a D).
Even the actual use of AI tends to be done in a very superficial, cookie-cutter way. Algorithms are sold, bought, and used with little consideration for whether or not they might actually be useful for the client. An algorithm useful for figuring out the best distribution model for Birkenstocks might not be that helpful in determining the best places to market Twinkies (not that anyone should even market Twinkies, you practically need an AI to decipher the ingredients to those tasty little carcinogen bombs). Your AI is only as useful as the algorithms is useful as the data you put into it. Both should be relevant to the kind of answers you’re trying to get.
For example, if you want to know the status of the flow in your natural gas pipelines, then it makes good sense to have a bunch of passive sensors to track flow rate, pressure, and the integrity of the pipe itself. That is all relevant and useful data for what a gas company might like to know. However, if a clothing company is trying to develop a new kind of shirt, whether it is a new cut, or a particular line of graphics on the shirt, then it doesn’t make sense to look only at passive data. Such data can only tell you how a similar product has done in certain areas, which is great if you are tracking past or even current trends. However, if you are planning on launching a new product, you’re taking those trends and trying to project them into the future. To put it another way, you’re guessing. Based on that kind of passive data, there is no way to be sure that the market will even be there for what you are planning on selling. Just think of the attempt to sell men’s capris pants back in the late 1990s. Someone clearly needed more relevant data than they had because those were on the clearance racks in droves in a matter of a month or two.
What if there was a way that you could get active data? Data that’s relevant to you now? That would actually be useful in planning for the future of your company and based on more than guess work? What if you could go right to the source?
That’s what we are offering at TARTLE, a way for a business to reach out to actual and potential customers to determine not what you hope they want, but what they actually want. Through the TARTLE marketplace, you have access to actual people who can tell you what they think about your proposed product before you spend a ton of money manufacturing and marketing it. Armed with that information, you can then make use of your AI to figure out the best manufacturing process and marketing campaign for products that people actually want, saving you time and money in the end.
What’s your data worth?
