AI: What We Can Expect In The Future
Got a burning question, like how to negotiate a pay rise, what to make with chicken, ricotta and mushrooms, or what the biggest TV shows of the year are? If your first port of call is ChatGPT or Claude, you’re not alone. AI is at a stage of rapid popularisation.
That brings exciting, sci-fi-worthy questions about what’s on the horizon. Tech companies are busy answering that, working out ways in which their tech can make our daily lives better. Here are the key ways in which AI looks to shape our lives in the next decade or two – prepare for your mind to be blown.
Ambient AI: less instructing, more doing
Thought AI was clever when you asked it to do something? Wait until you don’t even have to ask. The next stage of AI smarts is ambient AI – when you don’t have to take any actions for AI to work its magic; it just knows to do it in the background. Already, we can get AI-powered recommendations when we finish watching a show, or we can connect our phone to our home, so that when we walk out of the house, the lights switch off. Now imagine this, but more intelligent.
Smart home systems could read your calendar, learn your routines, and set up tech accordingly – like using live traffic or public transport information to tell you how long you have to get ready in the morning. Its smarts could extend to the car – how handy would it be if it was already warmed when we set off on an icy day?
Shifts the job market
The biggest concern with AI is the way that it will change the job market. AI is useful in dealing with repetitive tasks and large amounts of data. That means entry-level and routine jobs may be affected, but it will to save people’s time by doing the boring, repetitive tasks, allowing them to focus on the skills they were actually hired for.
We’re starting to see adoption in workplaces, and the next few years will see an explosion in custom-designed AI to carry out specific tasks, whether that’s invoicing in the accountancy world, analysing research in the marketing world, or re-ordering products in retail.
In medicine: better monitoring, diagnosing and treating
One of the best use cases of AI is in the medical field, where research, patterns and predictions are paramount. Already, it’s being used in the NHS for things like analysing chest X-rays: it identifies scans that show as normal, allowing radiologists to spend their time on scans that need more attention.
In the future, the possibilities are exciting. For starters, virtual health assistants – who would be trained in medical knowledge and latest research – could come in useful at every level, from triaging patients, to reminding patients at home to take their medicine, to working out appropriate treatment plans for complex cases. It might seem like a lot of responsibility for a machine, but given its capacity to hold facts is much larger than a human’s, there’s a strong case that it can do a better job than a real-life doctor.
Teaching and studying will become easier
Another great use for AI is in education. The first stages of adaptive learning software are already underway. This teaches pupils based on their level, ensures the pupil understands, and if not, goes back over it in an easier way until they do. In the near future, this tech will only become more sophisticated. Just imagine if this adaptive learning software incorporated a large language model like ChatGPT, became voice-assistive tech as well as a text-based one, and used the patterns of past pupils to precisely understand what the pupil needs next – that all makes for a very effective tutor.
However, the ability for students to use AI to cheat means the nature of education might change: could verbal tests become more important than written homework?
For teachers, already there’s a government-supported project underway to build a content store of lesson plans, curricula and assessments to reliably generate lesson plans, mark homework and reduce admin.
Making the most of our leisure time
While ambient AI will become even smarter – for example, our music streaming service could work out exactly what we’re in the mood for based on the tone of the conversations we’ve been having, the time of day, and our overall music tastes – there’s also a huge space for leisure time assistants.
If you’re having a friend over for the weekend, an assistant could chat to you both, merge your budgets and interests, scour the internet to find out everything relevant that’s on in your area, and come up with a few options to pick from. Like one? It can then handle the booking, and add it into your diary. Then when you take pictures together, it can attribute them to that event, so you’ll have a lasting memory of your time together.
Similarly, travel planning will become a whole lot easier as AI could work out an itinerary based on your interests and holiday desires, then cross-reference sites to find you the cheapest deals on accommodation, flights and activities.
If you’re a gym enthusiast, AI can be your personal trainer. Already, it can handle basic workout plans. But combine it with data from your wearables and inputs, add in more sophisticated machine learning, link it up with your gym equipment, and you could have a super-smart trainer helping you keep on track 24/7.
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