With more effective analytics readily available, business intelligence (BI) is supposed to provide data from the past and present, as well as predictive analytics for the future.

The problem is it (usually) doesn’t.

Most organizations, even those with a thorough BI strategy and an arsenal of analytics tools, are still finding problems too late. Trends pop up in the data and leaders can (and do) react to the information, but often in real-time (or later), which is not far enough in advance to change the trajectory of their products or sales.

Which is where artificial intelligence (AI) comes in.

But, for AI to truly capitalize on the key differences between it and current technologies, it would need to make decisions, and that, according to Dr. Barry Devlin, the author of Business Unintelligence – Insight and Innovation Beyond Analytics and Big Data, still makes many people uncomfortable.

In other making-people-uncomfortable news, IBM’s AI supercomputer recently argued (convincingly) against a human competitor, which means we are closer than ever to AI actually being able to make decisions that impact humans.

You maybe recall Watson playing Jeopardy and chess against human competitors, which was impressive, but, the difference here is that there are no set rules, points system or guidelines in a debate. The AI system had to find information and form a coherent argument based on its own research. There was not necessarily a “right answer,” as there would be to a Jeopardy question or in a chess match.

According to the scientists behind “Project Debater,” the technologies are currently only being used for IBM projects and they hope this type of research and debate can be used to help doctors make better decisions for patient treatment plans, but they don’t foresee it making its way to your Alexa or Siri any time soon.

But, what about making its way to your business intelligence? In my opinion, it’s only a matter of time.