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Where only a couple of years ago, nobody had even heard of a drone, nowadays it feels like almost everyone has heard of drones. The technical term for these flying robots is ‘Unmanned Aerial Vehicle’ (UAV), because the two properties that all drones share, are the fact that drones all fly and that the operator is not aboard of the drone itself. Right now, drones have few professional implementations. (Joshi, 2017) Still, companies like Amazon have big plans for using drones in the future, but hardly any of these plans have been realized as of today. So, what are the most important future implementation of drones? In other words, what is the future of drones?

 

The first drone was already used in World War I, when France and the United States were developing unmanned planes that were mostly designed as an espionage tool. Only recently have drones had a major boost in terms of development, usage and global awareness. Nowadays, drones have many more uses, like for instance: aerial photography, surveillance, relatively easy forms of unmanned cargo transport and forms of monitoring. Experts agree, however, that this is nothing compared to the numerous amounts of uses that the future of drones holds. (Joshi, 2017)

 

The next generation of drones, called generation 7, is already underway. The most important changes, compared to the current generation 6 drones, are full autonomy, complete special awareness and automatic take-off, landing and mission execution. These innovations make drones more useful in many different ways. First of all, complete special awareness and full autonomy will give drones the ability to fly in large groups, called swarms, to execute tasks by themselves, without hitting each other. The fact that drones are rapidly becoming smaller and cheaper to produce, helps the implementation of swarms immensely. Swarms of drones could be used for military purposes. Swarms of drones are much better at gathering information than a single and can be used as a large group of small, hard to hit weapons. Furthermore, if one of the drones of the swarm is lost or destroyed, the rest can still continue. (Hambling, 2017)

 

Secondly, in the near future, large pieces of farmland can be cheaply monitored by swarms of solar powered drones. These drones could for instance inspect hard to reach places, spot plant disease, check water levels and spray pesticides all by themselves. (Hambling, 2017)

 

Lastly, retail should also benefit from further development of drones. JLL retail experts predict that the retail industry will not feel the positive effect of drones for another ten to twenty years. Currently, there are still too many obstacles for large scale door-to-door deliveries to be effective and profitable. It is still too difficult for drones to navigate densely populated cities. The JLL experts predict that first the step to door-to-door delivery, is the delivery from producers to retailers. If this process has been perfected, door-to-door delivery by drones can be realized. Recently, Amazon has submitted a plan to build towers throughout densely populated cities, to create take-off and landing platforms for drones. (Williams, 2017)

 

All in all, drones have a lot of potential for the future. Many people might still think that drones are not the most useful invention of recent times, but the next generation of drones could very well make them think otherwise!

 

Bibliography

Hambling, D. (2017, 4 27). The next era of drones will be defined by ‘swarms’. Retrieved 10 10, 2017, from BBC: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170425-were-entering-the-next-era-of-drones

Joshi, D. (2017, 7 13). Exploring the latest drone technology for commercial, industrial and military drone uses. Retrieved 10 10, 2017, from Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/drone-technology-uses-2017-7?international=true&r=US&IR=T

Williams, C. (2017, 7 6). Future Of Retail: Drones To Play A Big Role In The Next 10 To 20 Years. Retrieved 10 10, 2017, from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bisnow/2017/07/06/future-of-retail-drones-to-play-a-big-role-in-the-next-10-to-20-years/#14392ba33eb2

 

 

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Decades of science-fiction movies have led us to believe that machines will replace humans in every way imaginable, even in marketing to humans. However, artificial intelligence still cannot create the perfect marketing campaign currently. Will artificial intelligence and machine learning ever be an essential part of marketing or is it nothing more than just a gimmick?

 

According to Harvard Business Review, machine learning and artificial intelligence are the most important technologies of the twenty-first century (E. Brynjolfsson, sd). Artificial intelligence and machine learning are often used as substitutes for each other, while they are technically not the same. Machine learning means that humans have to ‘teach’ a computer to perform a task based on a large amount of data, after which the computer can perform the task by itself based on information that is new, but still contains the same data types as the data it used to learn. Artificial intelligence, however, means that computers can learn by themselves, without the input of humans. Scientists often call this artificial general intelligence.

 

Humans have still not been able to implement this technology successfully. Still, companies often use the term ‘artificial intelligence’ as a public relations gimmick instead of using it to improve their products, says Intercom senior data scientist Kevin McNally. Right now, many of the biggest companies in the world are already using machine learning in some form or another. In 2013, only 6 companies mentioned the term ‘artificial intelligence’ in their earnings call, while in 2017, this rose to 244 mentions. McNally reckons that it is time for companies to start using machine learning to its fullest potential. He says that it is important for companies to use machine learning in a way so that it adds value for the customer. Nowadays, too many companies add ‘artificial intelligence’ to their products to increase the perceived value of the product (McNally, 2017). This not only adds minimal value for the customer, but also increases the price of the product, which could lead to customers becoming wary of this term.

 

Companies that have been using machine learning correctly, according to McNally, are companies like Netflix and Spotify. These companies use machine learning to recommend movies and songs for customers based on other movies they have seen or songs they have listened to. This may not be the most exciting implementation of artificial intelligence that is available today, unlike self-driving cars for instance, but is one of the most helpful implementations. So, it is important for companies to focus on useful implementations of machine learning, but the future lies in artificial general intelligence. A team of 352 experts have predicted that artificial general intelligence will be able to perform any task as well or even better than scientists by 2060, while Elon Musk reckons that this point in the future will lie closer to 2030 or 2040. This means that machines will be able to perform better than humans at creating a successful marketing campaign not so far in the future (Ryan, 2017).

 

So, companies generally are not on the right track to integrating machine learning into their marketing strategies. Eventually, machines will be able to outperform humans in any task, including marketing. I believe that companies can prepare themselves for the future in the best way, by finding ways to integrate machine learning into their products in ways that add value for the customer and to keep up with the latest developments in this field. All in all, artificial intelligence is definitely not a gimmick for marketing if used well!

 

Bibliography

Brynjolfsson, A. M. (n.d.). The Business Of Artificial Intelligence. Retrieved 10 10, 2017, from Harvard Business review: https://hbr.org/cover-story/2017/07/the-business-of-artificial-intelligence

McNally, K. (2017, 07 18). It’s Time To Stop Using AI As A Marketing Gimmick. Retrieved 10 10, 2017, from co.design: https://www.fastcodesign.com/90133598/its-time-to-stop-using-ai-as-a-marketing-gimmick

Ryan, K. (2017, 6 6). Elon Musk (and 350 Experts) Predict Exactly When Artificial Intelligence Will Overtake Human Intelligence. Retrieved 10 10, 2017, from Inc.: https://www.inc.com/kevin-j-ryan/elon-musk-and-350-experts-revealed-when-ai-will-overtake-humans.html