Seems like everybody’s an artificial intelligence (AI) provider these days. The global enterprise AI market, which garnered $4.68 billion in revenues in 2018, is expected to generate $53.06 billion by 2026, according to a report by Allied Market Research. So it’s little wonder that seemingly every enterprise technology vendor wants to grab a piece of the AI pie.

But not all AI solutions are what they seem. “AI washing” – the practice of touting a technology solution as AI when it may be no more than simple automation or a new marketing spin for an existing application – is a real phenomenon, industry analysts say. “Very few, in my opinion, are using strong AI,” says Wayne Butterfield, director of cognitive automation and innovation at ISG. “What we need to be mindful of is that AI covers over 200 different disciplines, so it’s not uncommon to be using a branch of AI in a tool. Some advanced analytics may now be classed as AI, even a small amount of machine learning. This means that you can be creative as a vendor.”

The explosive growth in the velocity, volume, and variety of data being produced by today’s enterprise, along with increasing computing power and the accessibility of new tools, means more IT organizations are considering or deploying AI solutions to solve business problems. However, as always, it’s important to push back on hype and dig into what a new technology actually has to offer before signing on the dotted line. Read On: