The Most Interesting Uses of AI and How They Are Evolving

Once a futuristic fantasy, artificial intelligence is now seamlessly woven into our daily lives, often in ways we don’t even realise. AI personalises your Netflix recommendations, virtual assistants, and social media ads, making your digital experience smoother. At the same time, it transforms real-world convenience by powering facial recognition, optimising traffic routes, and even enabling self-driving cars.

Artificial intelligence allows computers to perform tasks that usually require human intelligence, making it incredibly useful for businesses. In healthcare, it supports doctors by predicting likely patient diagnoses. While in customer service, AI chatbots use natural language processing (NLP) to answer common queries and save time for busy service reps.

AI is everywhere, but we’re only scratching the surface of its potential. Let’s explore its wide-ranging applications, starting with how it shapes your daily life and then dive into some of its compelling business cases.

You’re likely aware that artificial intelligence is changing the world, but you may not realise just how pervasive the technology is in our everyday lives. Here are six interesting real-world applications of AI you might not have considered.

Entertainment services like Netflix and Amazon Prime use AI algorithms to provide you with content recommendations based on sentiment analysis.

Whenever you watch a specific TV show, the algorithm updates its understanding of you and then presents more shows with the same genre, style, or lead actors. This algorithm helps you find relevant TV shows you’re most likely to enjoy.

Digital assistants like Siri, Cortana, and Alexa are all powered by artificial intelligence. These solutions use natural language processing to convert your speech into text, enabling them to search for information and execute commands.

They also improve over time, learning the nuances of your accent to better understand your future requests.

When you visit eCommerce sites like Amazon, AI routinely analyses your search queries and purchasing habits to provide tailored product recommendations.

Not only that, but if you run into an issue with your order, Amazon’s AI-powered chatbot will be there to assist you, too.

AI is becoming increasingly commonplace in video game production for designing game worlds and characters. For instance, through procedural generation, No Man’s Sky features an entire explorable universe with 18 quintillion unique, diverse planets.

Similarly, games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and The Last of Us use AI to design characters and enemies that are responsive to player actions and the environments around them.

AI also powers educational apps, which can provide personalised programs to help students improve their skills.

For example, the AI behind language-learning app Duolingo can analyse a learner's strengths and weaknesses and adapt in real-time based on data to allow users to learn new languages.

Search engines also use AI to help users find the best possible information. This is why you’ll often see Google auto-complete your answers based on popular search terms when you start typing into your search bar. AI is also behind the “People Also Ask” section, which pops up on your search engine results page.

Recently, you’ll even notice an “AI Overview” appearing at the top of Google’s SERPs (search engine results page), offering a summary of your query. This is powered by a large language model (LLM), Gemini.

Apps like Google Maps analyse traffic data to provide the fastest route to your destination. If an accident occurs, they’ll update you in real-time, offering an alternative route to speed up your commute.

As of late 2024, 35% of Australian SMEs have adopted AI, with the health, education and manufacturing sectors seeing the most significant uptake. With that being said, let’s look at some industries where AI is already having an enormous impact.

In the healthcare industry, AI and machine learning algorithms can support doctors by detecting early signs of disease and creating personalised care plans for individual patient’s needs. As the ML technology learns with experience, it will constantly improve its ability to identify patterns and diagnose illnesses.

For example, engineering researchers from Middle Technical University and the University of South Australia used training data featuring over 5,000 images to help machine learning models predict health conditions based on tongue colour with 98% accuracy. This offers an affordable, efficient disease screening method that can improve its accuracy with time.

In addition, AI can benefit healthcare businesses by acting as a first point of contact for common customer queries, saving valuable doctors time. It can even create conversation AI summaries for operators after calls, helping to reduce patient wait times.

AI is revolutionising the retail industry by enabling businesses to optimise supply chain management, create better-targeted marketing campaigns, and deliver more personalised customer experiences.

One of the most famous examples of AI in this space comes via Woolworths. Woolworths uses AI to predict optimal stock levels and suggest the best display layout for products. This saves the brand time and resources by eliminating the need for a trial-and-error approach to space planning.

At other online retail shops, AI helps to deliver better experiences by personalising recommendations based on customer preferences.

Artificial intelligence is a mainstay in the transportation industry, largely because it can perform data analytics in real-time. For instance, AI safety systems feature sensors and cameras that can monitor environments proactively to identify potentially catastrophic hazards.

For example, Boeing uses AI to detect pre-flight anomalies within its aircraft fleet. This allows the company to identify maintenance requirements before the problems become more serious, helping to uphold high safety standards. AI is also the driving force behind Tesla’s innovative autonomous vehicles.

In customer service, AI agents and chatbots can provide instant, around-the-clock support for customer queries, helping businesses deliver better experiences while saving valuable time. As these improve with time via machine learning and deep learning, they can learn customer preferences over time and offer more accurate advice.

AI agents can also help build cloud computing knowledge bases for customer service teams by summarising case resolutions and assisting reps in solving issues faster.

For example, Pacific Smiles Group, a fast-growing Australian dentist service organisation, needed a solution to scale quickly without compromising the patient experience.

To achieve this, the group deployed Agentforce, Salesforce’s complete AI solution, to respond to patient inquiries 24/7 on the company website. The agent can provide information on treatment options and help book appointments, providing patients with faster access to vital dental care.

In the finance sector, AI is particularly useful for managing cyber security risks and helping organisations stay on top of evolving compliance. Notably, it can help businesses detect suspicious, potentially fraudulent activity ahead of time.

Naturally, these algorithms benefit the end customer. For example, Westpac, one of Australia’s largest banks, recently launched SaferPay, an AI-powered solution designed to enhance financial security. It predicts which payments may be fraudulent and prompts additional verification questions to alert customers to potential scams.

In addition, AI allows financial institutions to deliver more personalised customer experiences. For instance, it can offer investment advice and budget planning resources based on customers' financial goals.

AI also has a broad range of applications in the manufacturing industry. As with the transportation sector, a key benefit of AI models is their ability to evaluate equipment in real-time and anticipate failures, allowing for proactive maintenance. This support minimises downtime and helps to reduce costs.

For example, Australian manufacturer BlueScope Steel launched the Global Emerging Technology Radar to explore how generative AI and responsible AI could improve operations and customer experience and drive business transformation. BlueScope Steel is also using machine learning to improve its steel manufacturing processes.

AI is also integral to the design of autonomous robots. These robots can operate assembly lines automatically, completing tasks faster and with greater accuracy than humans.

Many manufacturing businesses also use digital twins to create virtual replicas of physical systems, processes, or products. They can then test these replicas in real time to assess behaviour and check their performance in different environments. This allows organisations to optimise and improve the physical twin without investing significant time and money.

One of the sectors that has embraced AI the most is the agriculture industry. Farmers use the technology to track crops for disease, anticipate likely yields, and optimise their irrigation strategies.

For instance, Australian Livestock Management Solution AgriWebb uses AI-powered drones to assess pasture conditions and livestock. This enables their clients to allocate resources more effectively and prevent potential problems before they arise.

Teachers have begun using AI technology to create personalised learning programs, which can improve student engagement and ensure that everyone receives the correct amount of support to succeed. Educational chatbots are just one way AI can provide valuable support to students.

For example, NSWEduChat, the NSW Department of Education’s AI-powered tutoring system, uses GPT-4 to provide personalised, non-biased support to students on a wide range of subjects, from complex maths equations to general questions. In doing so, students can receive tailored support outside of normal teaching hours, improving the quality of revision while saving teachers time spent answering common questions.

In addition, AI automates many administrative tasks for schools, such as grading exams and creating lesson plans. This frees up educator time so that teachers can spend more time supporting their students in more meaningful ways.

In digital marketing, AI agents can monitor interactions with leads to support better targeting, help marketers optimise their conversions throughout the sales pipeline, analyse marketing data, and design personalised outreach. Large language models can create everything from product descriptions to email chains, helping businesses create seamless customer journeys.

For instance, Salesforce Marketing AI helps businesses segment their audience, draw conclusions from marketing data sets, build customer journeys by demographic, create content that converts customers, and much more.

Here are five more industries where AI is making a difference.

• Travel: AI can offer personalised journey recommendations, help consumers find flight deals, and handle common queries.
• Energy: AI can optimise energy resources, predict maintenance, and manage the distribution of renewable energy based on an enormous amount of data.
• Law: AI processes information at lightning-fast speeds, making it ideal for sorting through legal information and identifying problem areas in lengthy documents.
• Government: AI can detect crimes proactively to improve public safety. It also offers valuable citizen advice services.
• Human resources: An AI algorithm can automate repetitive tasks like resume screening, freeing up time for professionals to work on high-value workflows.

Here are some exciting emerging use cases for artificial intelligence:

• Space exploration: NASA teams are beginning to use AI to navigate spacecraft, plan missions, and even detect objects like asteroids before they pose a risk.
• Climate engineering: AI could play a pivotal role in the fight against climate change. Startups like CarbonPlan are using AI to analyse our climate, laying the groundwork for AI-managed geoengineering projects in the future.
• Language translation: AI has already made significant strides in breaking down language barriers. Tools like Meta’s No Language Left Behind use advanced artificial neural networks for real-time translation.
• Creative arts and design: AI has the potential to revolutionise the arts by generating music, literature, and artwork. Creators can already utilise tools like AIVA to develop imagery and music, creating new forms of artistic expression.
• Drug discovery: In healthcare, one of the most exciting AI applications is its ability to expedite drug discovery. AI tools can analyse biological research, identify patterns, and predict drug efficacy faster than any human.

We’ve revealed just a small fraction of the industry solutions AI can offer. It’s exciting that artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms have the potential to impact every industry and every part of our day-to-day lives in a positive way. And it’s only going to get more interesting from here on out!

If you’re running a business and want to get the most out of artificial intelligence this year, the best place to start is with an all-in-one AI solution that your existing customer data can seamlessly integrate into.

Salesforce AI can help you improve efficiency, drive productivity, and deliver exceptional customer experiences across your business, from sales and marketing to customer service and compliance. Discover how Salesforce AI can support your business’s goals.