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Hello reader, you clicked on this article, because you decided it might be interesting to read. The chance is high that you also posted an article, which I may read in turn, and even comment on. This way, we are interacting with each other and exchanging information. How fun! 

How the web has changed

This process is probably in no way new for you, though. You are doing this on a daily basis. It’s called the ‘Web 2.0’. This is the web of a huge amount of producers of information and a enormous amount of consumers. For instance, think of online chatrooms and databases where you can instantly post your opinion or facts or those of someone else. When looking for a recommendation where to go or eat, you can go to website where thousands of people like you left their reviews. This system is a big step up from the ‘Web 1.0’, where there were only a few single producers of information, and you as a consumer had to accept whatever information was given to you. 

So imagine you have a tough question that you need answered. Let’s say… ‘ Where shall I eat tonight?’  In the Web 1.0, you would find a few websites of restaurants near you, and after you have had to decide whether you want pizza or burgers, you would have to trust their websites as to how good their food is. In the Web 2.0, you are helped by peers who reviewed these restaurants, but you still have to pick your preference. 

What the web is doing now

Now, the ‘ Web 3.0’  is arriving. The Web 3.0 wants to help you by giving a tailor-made answer to your question. It wants to get to know you, so that it knows exactly what you need. Based on travel data, it knows that you only have a bike to get around. Based on location data, it knows where you live and what restaurants are an option for you. Based on browsing data, it knows what your favorite food is. When you ask it where you should eat, it will use all this information to recommend a restaurant that is perfect for you. The more it knows about you, the better it can help you. Examples where this is to some extent already happening is personalized recommendations and ads by companies like Facebook and Amazon.

To create the perfect answer to your query, the Web 3.0 uses the ‘semantic web’, which means that AI analyses all webpages that there are out there, looks at the true meaning of these webpages, and combines all this information to give you a relevant answer. This analysis of true meaning is different from the old way of searching for results using keywords. 

The obstacles

As you may think, to give you a personalized answer based on the internet requires that all information that is out there is connected (think of IoT). There are some caveats here, starting with the fact that the total amount of information is huge, often contradictory, and subject to personal opinions. 

And even if the Web 3.0 would be advanced to combine all data, the question is who will store that data. As it seems now, the tech giants like Facebook and Google will be the first in line to use your data for this purpose. However, they have already proven that they tend to abuse this data, so imagine the risk when this data becomes even more personalized. And that doesn’t even say anything about hacking yet.

The solution here is the technology of blockchain. Without going into technical details, blockchain is a way to efficiently store data in a decentralized and democratic way. The big tech giants will no longer have a monopoly on our data and it will be much, much safer.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the ‘Web 3.0’ is a name for a big wide trend that is happening in the digital world, that is closely connected to many disruptive technologies, such as AI and blockchain. While we are not there yet, it will massively change the way that we use the internet, if we can find a way to do it safely and efficiently.

Sources:

Guntenaar, F. (2019, August 7). What is Web 3.0? The Evolution of the Internet. Retrieved from https://blockgeeks.com/guides/web-3-0/

Lichtigstein, A. (2018, August 7). Web 3.0 Will Be Powered by Blockchain Technology Stack. Retrieved from https://hackernoon.com/web-3-0-will-be-powered-by-blockchain-technology-stack-626ce3f828c7

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We all hear great stories about the applications that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has for the business world. Big tech firms, such as Google, Netflix and Facebook, are already leveraging the technology to a large extent to create more value (or capture more value, depends on who you ask). However, these tech giants sit on a large pile of resources, financial but also human, that they can use to do research and investments in AI. So is this shift attainable for smaller organizations as well?

For organizations in any industry, the shift to AI is a great effort. It takes many man hours, and huge sums of investments to install an adequate AI project. Peter Skomoroch, a data scientist, tweeted: “As a rule of thumb, you can expect the transition of your enterprise company to machine learning will be about 100x harder than your transition to mobile” (Bergstein, 2019). It is a warning sign for the hurdles that future-oriented organizations will have to jump if they want to be one of the early adopters of AI. However, the technology has already paid off for the firms that were early to the party, so putting an investment in AI on your budget should be a no-brainer, right?

That may be, if you are part of a global corporation like IBM or GE. However, not all companies have the resources to hire PHDs in data science, particularly SMEs. And even if they could afford the investment, SMEs are historically less likely to take risky investments, because one bad investment could be detrimental to these organizations that typically have no adequate financial buffers (Forbes.com, 2019). Therefore, it is easy to understand why SMEs are lagging behind in AI investments. Which is a shame, because SMEs form the backbone of any economy, and could greatly benefit from more AI adoption (HitechNectar, 2019).

So how can SMEs make use of AI without the need for large, risky investments? The great thing is that SMEs don’t need to reinvent the wheel if they want to start using AI. The reason is that larger technology firms as well as start-ups have developed platforms and software that any company can use (Hackernoon.com, 2019). Payment can be a one-time fee or on subscription basis, but the point is that the costs for the AI investment that the technology provider occurred are in a sense distributed among all users of the technology. Examples are this are automated customer support with chatbots, competitor-tracking software, or an easily adaptable Machine Learning platform that can be used to create efficiencies in email management, process optimization, and much more.

So if you are part of an SME and want to jump on the AI hype train, keep in mind that it is in fact a possibility.

References:

Bergstein, B. (2019). This is why AI has yet to reshape most businesses. [online] MIT Technology Review. Available at: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612897/this-is-why-ai-has-yet-to-reshape-most-businesses/ [Accessed 14 Sep. 2019].

Forbes.com. (2019). Council Post: How SMEs Can Catch The AI Wave. [online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/08/07/how-smes-can-catch-the-ai-wave/#3f12c87c24a6 [Accessed 14 Sep. 2019].

Hackernoon.com. (2019). How Can AI Help Small Businesses?. [online] Available at: https://hackernoon.com/how-can-ai-help-small-businesses-e3f6938d384b [Accessed 14 Sep. 2019].

HitechNectar. (2019). AI- The Preferred Direction of Modern SMEs | Artificial Intelligence. [online] Available at: https://www.hitechnectar.com/blogs/ai-preferred-modern-smes/ [Accessed 14 Sep. 2019].