A technology revolution began at the turn of the century and we’re still riding it. The proliferation of the smartphone and the internet has galvanized this obsession with development and investment in technology trends. Such is the relentless pace of our pursuit of better and faster that innovations become outdated in a matter of weeks. Artificial intelligence (AI) and smart technology are changing the way we live, work, and interact with one another.
Making use of AI enables a level of cognitive awareness. It is the ability to make decisions without human intervention. The technology employs machine learning and big data analysis to perform functions that have traditionally been done by humans. In doing so, it rapidly boosts the efficiency, productivity, and functionality of almost anything it’s applied to.
The machine learning of today has no more capability than the statistical packages that are already in use within enterprise data warehouse solutions. The future holds a new set of machine learning tools that integrate with big data, “neural networks”, which have the capability for classification, regression analytics, and forecasting.
Smart data is hardly new to the information management world. We expect smart devices and systems to reduce repetitive workloads and enhance our experience in whatever our endeavor du jour happens to be. As a result of our impatience data scientists and software engineers are applying various machine learning algorithms to increase the impact capabilities. At the same time they are calling for more transparency about how these cognitive applications actually function.
Don’t forget that smart data is consumable and that is a good thing. Data is useless if it can’t be consumed by target users, be they human beings or automated components.
Widespread use of technologies likes these may take a little while, but it does give you an idea of what is possible, and the potential is still undiscovered.
Even with semantic technology powering information management, comprehensive findability is still the core goal. One key way to ensure this is through a solid taxonomy, based on standards, built by someone with years of experience in the field. Access Innovations is one of a very small number of companies able to help its clients generate ANSI/ISO/W3C-compliant taxonomies.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in taxonomies, metadata, and semantic enrichment to make your content findable.
