Artificial intelligence is a growing trend in the business world. The IBM Watson Partner Ecosystem, for instance, allows companies to tap into the power of Watson for fields as varied as healthcare and education. In addition, the Amazon Echo Developer Network allows you to add voice functionality to connected devices and enhance Alexa’s skills.

But what impact is this shift having on business? To answer that, we turn to 10 statistics that show where the industry is heading.

1. There was more than $300 million in venture capital invested in AI startups in 2014, a 300% increase over the year before. (Bloomberg)
2. By 2020, 85% of customer interactions will be managed without a human. (Gartner)
3. 32% of executives say voice recognition is the most-widely used AI technology in their business. (Narrative Science)
4. By 2018, six billion connected devices will proactively ask for support. (Gartner)
5. 44% of executives believe artificial intelligence’s most important benefit is “automated communications that provide data that can be used to make decisions.” (Narrative Science)
6. By the end of 2018, “customer digital assistants” will recognize customers by face and voice across channels and partners. (Gartner)
7. 80% of executives believe artificial intelligence improves worker performance and creates jobs. (Narrative Science)
8. By 2020, smart agents will manage 40% of mobile interactions. (Gartner)
9. Artificial intelligence will replace 16% of American jobs by the end of the decade. (Forrester)
10. 15% of Apple phone owners users use Siri’s voice recognition capabilities. (BGR)

Well, what do you think? Are these stats what you expected? Do they paint a negative or positive picture of what artificial intelligence in business will be like?

Let me know in the comments, and don’t forget to download our whitepaper on providing an omnichannel customer experience.

Image by Flickr user cblue98. CC2.0 license.