AI - The Story of an Ascent
The steam engine was patented in England in 1769. But it took almost a century for its impact on America’s industrial might to be noticeable. ChatGPT only needed a few weeks to conquer 100 million users. This pace of adoption is unrivalled in history, including in technology. One year after the birth of ChatGPT, the deployment of generative AI – a major technology breakthrough – has put the spotlight on the huge potential of AI.
The roll-out of generative AI is unprecedented. Evaluated at 29 billion dollars in 2022, the global market for generative AI should reach 668 billion in 2030 according to a recent study conducted by Fortune Business Insights – an annual pace of growth of +47.5%.
Many sectors are concerned, from healthcare to entertainment, financial services, and fast-moving consumer goods. This year’s CES, which took place in Las Vegas and ended in January, gave pride of place to generative IA, showcasing innovations in the gaming, household appliance or robotics industries, which are entering a new era.
AI is moving into our personal and professional lives. AI is already improving our daily lives in several ways: search engines, e-commerce platforms, and social networks have massively adopted the technology to enhance the performance of their products. Cybersecurity platforms have adopted AI for the daily protection of users, corporates and governments throughout the world. AI has introduced new uses, such as self-driving cars for example: Tesla has made major breakthroughs with FSD and Waymo already offers self-driving taxis in Phoenix, Arizona…
AI has become established as a new paradigm for corporate competitiveness. Fuelled by exponential growth trends, expanding data, the proliferation of cloud computing, the evolution of artificial neural networks, and the development of new applications, AI enables companies that have adopted the technology to keep a step ahead – sometimes significantly. AI has been proven to boost productivity: developers are already 30 to 50% more productive thanks to generative AI, which enables them to write code in just a few clicks. In healthcare, the outlook for the sector is improving thanks to the accelerated development of new therapies and the analysis of the human genome. AI is used, for instance, for molecular modeling and new drug development, as demonstrated by the major breakthroughs reported by large pharmas such as AstraZeneca, Merck, Eli Lilly, or by the German biotech company, Biontech. In all sectors, companies that are building solid AI foundations are best positioned to transform and improve their competitive agility. Perfect examples would be the first tech companies to have developed AI, such as Nvidia, leading supplier of GPUs, now the “brains of AI”, or cybersecurity players, with companies such as Crowdstrike. AI leaders already post growth rates that are up to 50% higher than those of their peers[1]. These provide a broad and deep pool of long-term investment opportunities for the Echiquier Artificial Intelligence fund, a pioneering strategy dedicated to the theme since 2018.
Designed as an instrument for emancipation, AI has now become ubiquitous, and we shall have to learn to work and live with intelligent machines.