Gartner Says Artificial Intelligence Is a Game Changer for Personal Devices

Gartner
Says Artificial Intelligence Is a Game Changer for Personal Devices

SINGAPORE, January 9, 2018 —
Emotion artificial intelligence (AI)
systems are becoming so sophisticated that Gartner, Inc. predicts that by 2022,
personal devices will know more about an individual’s emotional state than his
or her own family. AI is generating multiple disruptive
forces that are reshaping the way we interact
with personal technologies.

“Emotion AI systems and
affective computing are allowing everyday objects to detect, analyze, process
and respond to people’s emotional states and moods to provide better context
and a more personalized experience,” said Roberta Cozza, research
director at Gartner. “To remain relevant, technology vendors must
integrate AI into every aspect of their devices, or face marginalization.”

The current wave of emotion AI systems is being driven by the
proliferation of virtual personal assistants (VPAs)
and other AI-based technology for conversational systems. As a second wave
emerges, AI technology will add value to more and more customer experience
scenarios, including educational software, video games, diagnostic software,
athletic and health performance, and the autonomous car.

“Prototypes and commercial products already exist and adding
emotional context by analyzing data points from facial expressions, voice
intonation and behavioral patterns will significantly enhance the user
experience,” said Ms. Cozza. “Beyond smartphones and
connected home devices, wearables and connected vehicles will
collect, analyze and process users’ emotional data via computer vision, audio
or sensors capturing behavioral data to adapt or respond to a user’s wants and
needs.”

Other personal device predictions from Gartner include:

By 2021, 10 percent of wearables users will have changed
lifestyles, and thereby extend their life spans by an average of six months.

As AI emotion systems evolve there is huge potential for
specialized devices, such as medical wristbands, which can anticipate
life-threatening conditions and facilitate an early response system. At the
same time special apps are also being developed for diagnostic and therapy
services that will help to recognize conditions such as depression or help
children with autism.

“Even a basic wearable device could
have a positive impact on the wearer’s health,” said Annette Zimmermann,research
vice president at Gartner. “We are seeing growing numbers of users actively
changing their behavior for the better with the adoption of a wearable device.
Not only can this have beneficial influence on the amount of exercise they do
but there is evidence that one or two out of 10 smartwatch and fitness band
users discover a condition such as sleep apnea or cardiac arrhythmia through
wearing the device.”

By 2020, 60 percent of personal technology device vendors will use
third-party AI cloud services to enhance functionality and services.

Cloud-based AI technologies are driving compelling user
experiences on a variety of connected devices. Cloud offerings from the big
tech players, such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Tencent, Baidu and IBM, are
starting to proliferate due to their attractive cost model, easy-to-use
integration and potential to create complex services. A major catalyst for
device vendors to use cloud AI services is the increased usage of VPAs and
natural-language technologies, while the adoption of VPA-based, screenless
devices such as Amazon Echo and Google Home is also on the rise, further
increasing usage of cloud AI services.

“We are starting to see adoption of these services from
high-profile vendors that are using them to widen their reach,” said Anthony Mullen, research
director at Gartner. “Fitbit uses Alexa Skills to make user stats and
functionality available through VPA speakers just as Netflix uses Actions for
Google Assistant to voice control its service. Ultimately, vendors will compete
on the best user experience and the smartness of their products, not the
technology behind it.”

Through 2022, security technology combining machine learning,
biometrics and user behavior will reduce passwords to account for less than 10
percent of all digital authentications.

Password-based simple authentication is
becoming less and less effective for personal devices. Even today’s popular
biometric technology — fingerprint authentication — is only around 75 percent
successful due to contaminants such as dirt and sweat.

“Users need more convenient and accurate options for
unlocking their devices,” said CK Lu, research
director at Gartner. “Security technologies that combine machine
learning, biometrics and user behavior will become
necessary to improve ease of use, self-service and frictionless
authentications. Within the next five years new security technology will
recognize the user, prevent fraud and detect automation threats such as
malware, remote access trojans and malicious bots.”

Additional analysis on personal technology trends will be provided
at the Gartner Tech Growth & Innovation
Conference 2018 taking place April 30 – May 2 in San Diego, CA.
Follow news and updates from the event on Twitter using#GartnerTGI.