Earlier this year, we predicted that the democratization of AI and Low-Code / No-Code solutions would be two of the top technologies to watch in 2021. Artificial Intelligence is on the rise and affecting practically every part of our lives. AI technologies enable everyone to become a citizen data scientist. A real-world example with our workplace safety Edge AI model, produced using Lobe.ai, includes market research data. 

Democratization of AI and Low-Code / No-Code solutions Are Increasing In Popularity

Analysts from research firms such as Gartner define the democratization of Artificial Intelligence in various ways, but all have a transformational quality. A domain expert, for example, can use simple data science tools without prior data science experience in citizen data science. This is particularly beneficial since actual domain experts with years of experience and domain understanding can generate effective AI solutions at a rate that rivals any data scientist learning the topic. This prior experience improves the feasibility, speed to market, and return on investment of the resulting solution. Still, it also allows enterprises to use scarce data scientist resources on more challenging problems like model optimization.

AI-Augmented Design, in which AI technologies assist in creating or enhancing visual design, storyboards, user flows, and presentation layer programming, is another growing trend. In addition, AI-assisted development improves application development to produce better quality, faster, and more consistently developed software. An AI assistant can also assist with code snippet completion, particularly useful in low-code development.

Developers and other technology-related jobs are in high demand, particularly in AI and data analytics. More than 150 million technology-related employment will be created globally over the next five years. Data scientist and data engineer jobs are expected to rise at a 35 percent yearly rate, according to the US Emerging Jobs Report 2020. And, according to the latest research, demand is increasing even more. Finding enough specialists with the required skill sets to meet demand with this growth rate will be challenging. 

Democratization of AI and Low-Code / No-Code solutions tool enable enterprises to bridge the gap by allowing citizen data scientists to construct custom AI solutions for various scenarios without requiring an AI professional.

Business executives should remain on top of these trends and urge their domain experts, design, and development teams to assess and adopt various Artificial Intelligence tools to improve their abilities and streamline their processes. Leaders should also devise a strategy for informing their employees on using these technologies responsibly and the ethical implications of skewed data. We'll detail this vital topic in an upcoming #SummerofAI post on ethical and responsible AI usage.

Democratization Of AI And Low-Code / No-Code Solutions Top Technology Trends From Microsoft

Like most other IT corporations, Microsoft significantly invests in citizen engineers and citizen data scientists. Their Business Application Platform provides a wide range of attractive solutions, from no-code or low-code development to full-code development.

Microsoft PowerPoint:

For example, AI-enhanced design is available in a few Office 365 applications, such as the AI-powered PowerPoint Designer. This function suggests slide layouts and assists in swiftly transforming a drab deck into a well-designed one. It can create fully themed decks or make suggestions for enhancements such as text readability. Users can benefit from automatic alt-text, subtitles, and live captioning for accessibility during presentations. This implies that AI is fully integrated into PowerPoint and may assist you at any point during your presentation. Included is a virtual Presenter Coach who will guide you through the presentation rehearsal process. More information about these features may be found here.

Microsoft Word:

Microsoft Word, for example, has an AI-powered auto-complete tool with text predictions that are already integrated into Office 365. Word's Text Predictions were used to create the text you're reading right now. As you can see in the screenshot below, this feature isn't like previous AI projects that attempted to complete a full-text document from a single paragraph. Instead, it suggests upcoming word groupings to help you type faster. With semi-automatic alt-text generation and an accessibility checker, Word also has AI techniques to make the text more accessible.

GitHub:

The Microsoft-owned open-source community GitHub recently launched AI-Augmented Development. GitHub's Co-Pilot aIt text completion goes beyond standard text completion by suggesting code lines, functions, and methods straight inside the Visual Studio Code editor. Co-Pilot uses OpenAI's new Codex AI system, which was trained on billions of lines of code from GitHub's public source code repositories and programming languages. Co-Pilot is still in a closed beta test, but it appears to be on track to make developers' lives easier by automating routine activities.

Cognitive Services In Azure:

There are services for developers to add AI intelligence to their apps effortlessly, and AI is a wonderful pair-programmer using GitHub Co-Pilot. Azure Cognitive Capabilities, for example, provides a variety of services that make AI accessible to developers with no prior machine learning experience. Users can embed the capacity to see, hear, speak, search, understand, and expedite decision-making into any programme using simple REST API requests or specialized SDKs. To produce unique AI computer vision solutions, Cognitive Services uses pre-trained AI models that can even be tailored to specific needs, such as Custom Vision. Many Cognitive Services are also available on edge, where workloads can be run on-site at edge devices.

Azure Machine Learning Studio is yet another fantastic Microsoft tool for creating AI models without having to write a single line of code. Azure ML Studio is a data science platform that caters to various skill levels by combining no-code and code-first experiences. It even has AutoML, a technology that automatically determines the appropriate Machine Learning model architecture for a given problem statement and data domain.

Conclusion

As this essay demonstrates, the demand for intelligent solutions that require specialized expertise is increasing, but there is a supply shortage. Fortunately, many options on the market democratize Artificial Intelligence through low-code and no-code development, allowing anyone to design intelligent solutions tailored to their specific domain needs. It's not easy to go through the available options and choose the best method for your situation, but we're here to assist! Valorem Reply's Data-Driven Enterprise team can assist you in achieving your goals quickly and efficiently, whether you're ready to build your own bespoke AI solutions with us or want to learn more. 

So, if you wish to grow your business using artificial intelligence, Contact the ONPASSIVE team to know how.