Is the AI revolution for real this time?

It isn’t often that the software and applications development community agrees wholeheartedly on one singular thing, but when it comes to predicting trends for 2023, there has been a staggering consensus. There is an expectation that 2023 will be known as the year when artificial intelligence (AI) finally saw mainstream adoption. The excitement levels are at an all-time high due to the emergence of generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney that sparked our imaginations by taking simple prompts and providing in-depth answers, and even custom art. It allowed us to immediately see the value, and how this is only the tip of the iceberg. We wrote a blog on this subject which you can check out here.

Enhancing value provided by 10x

So what does this mean for apps that are currently out there, or those that are looking to initiate development this year? One thing is for sure – soon, your app will need to have some AI component to it in order to keep up with the competition. For example, major SaaS products such as Notion have already incorporated AI tools into their app to help you tackle a first draft, brainstorm ideas, and more. Others like Tome have gone a step further to allow you to generate entire slide decks based on a prompt. It is safe to say that every single major app that you use daily is likely to have an AI assistant in the near future (if they don’t already). Need to get through a massive email backlog? Gmail and/or Outlook will soon have an assistant available to knock those out for you. Need to update your resume as you are applying for a new job? LinkedIn will be able to give you tips on how to tailor your resume to maximize your chance of success for that role. AI will be at the core of every software and application in the next few years, and the adoption rate will be lightning fast.

Fueling the AI revolution

This is largely made possible due to the 6’Ds principal, outlined by Peter Diamandis in this blog post which asserts that with the exponential growth of technological advancements, we continue to demonetize and democratize powerful technologies as more people gain access to them and economies of scale kick in. Nowadays, a programmer with less than $100 budget can spin up servers in the cloud to process immense amounts of data, which previously would be unthinkable for anyone except the top 5-10 technology giants to have access to. The barrier to entry has been lowered to a point where it is nearly zero which brings millions of new innovators and contributors to the table, and they are creating some incredible things. The AI revolution will not be any different – in fact, it will be fueled by this. Anyone with an idea will be able to spin up an AI in the cloud that can perform natural language processing, generate art, videos, music, movies, visual effects, recommendation engines and much more, at incredibly low rates (e.g. ~$0.03 per request).

Couple this with the fact that these AI tools will further reduce the barrier to entry from a technical perspective as they will assist people in building the technologies without needing the level of coding techniques as previously required. Tools such as Github Copilot and the aforementioned ChatGPT can guide you along your coding process and generate entire blocks of code that you otherwise may not have been able to write. This will allow more creatives to enter the field and focus on high-level ideas and user experiences, without having to worry too much about the implementation. When the walls of limitations are broken down in this fashion, creativity thrives and innovation shines.

Embrace the future & get on board

Forward thinking companies will embrace this new frontier and become trail blazers in their respective fields. As is the case with every new chapter in technological advancements, there will be skeptics and laggards. However, the cat is well out of the bag on the AI front and it is hard to see this resulting as a passing fad. The major consulting companies of the world are also unanimous on this front, that in order for major enterprises to succeed in the future, they will need to embrace AI and optimize their business processes for an AI-first approach. Those that wait too long to realize this will likely get left behind and become the dinosaurs of the future. The time is now to jump in with both feet – the water’s great!