Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Internet of Things – these are the three biggest buzzwords that are sweeping the tech world since the last 6 months or so. From entrepreneurial start-ups creating tools in these areas to industry biggies setting aside massive budgets for R&D, these three buzzwords are driving growth, adoption and innovation in tech. Strangely, majority of people who are the beneficiaries of these technologies do not realize the real potential of these technologies. And then of course, there are certain skills that are required to build solutions around these technologies that developers need to possess, in order to ride this new-age tech wave.
AI is bigger than we think it is!Today, we believe that the proliferation of chat bots, digital assistants like Siri or Cortana, and comparison e-commerce websites are the best use-cases of AI and VR. The truth is that these technologies have already pervaded into our lives in ways we are unable to comprehend. Take manufacturing for instance – human workers in assembly lines are being replaced by robots, who can be programmed using AI. The smart phone division of Panasonic recently launched in India, an AI-application called Arbo that sits inside your phone and ‘understands’ your behaviour pattern to pull up apps and features based on your predictive behaviour. Enter the website of Royal Challengers Bangalore, one of the teams in the Indian Premier League and you are greeted by the RCB bot that chats with you and helps you buy tickets, get player statistics and allows you to devise your own strategies – all based on a machine learning algorithm.
VR the world!Similarly, virtual reality is making its way to operation theatres where doctors are able to perform advanced surgeries in complex parts of the human body using VR headsets that provide 3D images of infected areas. Ramesh Nimmagadda Cancer Foundation has tied up recently with SAP for an ambitious initiative to generate credible patient data for better cancer treatment. By using its Connected Health and Medical Research Insights technologies, the company is ensuring that patient medical data is recorded and accessed effectively, using predictive analytics, forecasting behaviour based on existing data. These are just a few of many ways in which AI, machine learning and VR are pervading into our lives every single day. And then of course, there’s the all-compassing IoT, that essentially shrinks your world into a single button. The most common use-case here is how companies are letting you connect all your favourite devices – your smartphone, laptop, TV, washing machine, aircon and everything in between, and letting you operate all of them from any one of these gadgets. Having said that, there are much larger applications of IoT that we are exposed to in our day-to-day lives without even realizing it.
Demand for a skilled workforceThe breakneck pace of innovations in AI, VR and IoT has posed a huge challenge – the need for trained personnel to effectively create and maintain these solutions. This translates to two things – an urgent need for skilled professionals who understand data and are able to manipulate data and two, hardcore tech skills that form the backbone of innovations.
While data science and programming competencies are invaluable skills to have a flourishing career in new-age tech, specific skillsets such as Tensor Flow, a software library which Google claims to provide ‘superpowers’ in the world of machine learning, are emerging as game-changers. The fundamentals of VR, AI and IoT are data and how effectively you can create and leverage user-generated data. Hence, any skill that allows you to better analyse, manage and process data is your red-carpet to a better career. Of course, depending on the quantity of data, big data skills can come in handy. We at Edureka have seen multi-fold growth in our machine learning courses just in the last quarter, We are, in fact, launching an all-encompassing AI course in the days to follow.
We are currently at the cusp of a tech revolution of sorts. The stage is set for new-age tech careers to zoom and each of these careers will be powered by AI, VR, machine learning and IoT.
Guest Author
Lovleen Bhatia is CEO and Co-founder of Edureka – Indian edu-tech brand based in Bangalore.