Latest Data Digest: Leading News in Information Technology
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is making a significant impact across multiple sectors, revolutionising the way we live, work, and play. In the real estate, transportation, and retail industries, AI is enhancing data-driven decision making, automating customer interactions, and enabling technological innovations.
Revolutionising Real Estate
In the real estate sector, AI is being utilised to analyse data and market trends, providing a competitive edge. For instance, Simon Property Group, a leading real estate company, is leveraging AI combined with its financial strength and retail assets to dominate the market through innovation. AI is also being used by property marketplaces to match buyers with homes based on preferences, improving the effectiveness of lead scoring and sales processes with about 95% accuracy. However, it's important to note that AI cannot yet replace human judgment entirely, as it lacks senses and emotional intelligence critical to assessing conditions such as property defects or neighbourhood qualities.
Autonomous Transportation
In transportation, AI is driving the future with self-driving cars. These vehicles are expected to grow into a $400 billion market by 2035, moving beyond niche novelty to mainstream adoption. AI applications like map apps are enhancing daily convenience and reducing traffic jams, improving overall transportation efficiency. In fact, Baidu, a technology company based in China, has received permission to operate autonomous taxis without a safety driver in designated zones in Wuhan and Chongqing during the day.
AI in Retail
For the retail industry, AI is powering customer service chatbots, with predictions that 95% of online and telephone retail interactions will be AI-assisted by 2025. This enables cost savings and scalability. Self-checkout kiosks using AI are reducing the need for human cashiers, leading to job displacement but also reflecting evolving consumer preferences for touchless transactions during the COVID-19 pandemic. AI also supports inventory management and theft prevention in retail environments.
Innovations and Challenges
Overall, AI acts as a powerful tool across these industries by improving accuracy, automating routine tasks, and offering new service modalities. However, it also raises challenges such as job displacement and the need to balance AI capabilities with human judgment, especially in areas requiring ethical or sensory assessment.
For instance, an international team of researchers has developed an AI system that can predict flashovers in burning rooms before they occur, while the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York City is partnering with Hayden AI to install AI-powered cameras on buses for enforcing traffic rules. On the other hand, FamilyMart, a convenience store chain in Japan, has deployed autonomous robots to restock drinks in their refrigerators, replacing one to three hours of human labor per day.
In Warsaw, Poland, officials have launched an augmented reality game to teach visitors about the local Vistula River at five points along the river. These examples demonstrate the diverse ways AI is being integrated into our daily lives, offering both opportunities and challenges that we must navigate carefully.
In the real estate sector, AI is not only analyzing data and market trends but also powering property marketplaces to match buyers with homes based on preferences, improving lead scoring and sales processes with about 95% accuracy (data-and-cloud-computing, technology, artificial-intelligence). Autonomous vehicles, driven by AI, are anticipated to become a $400 billion market by 2035, transforming transportation efficiency (autonomous-transportation, artificial-intelligence). In retail, AI is rapidly evolving customer service, with predictions that 95% of online and telephone retail interactions will be AI-assisted by 2025 (retail, artificial-intelligence).
