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Spotlight on robots Transforming business tasks with robotics and automation
R Dr Tom Parsons CO-FOUNDER, SPOTLIGHT DATA
Tom has a background in research, aerospace and pharmaceuticals and specialises in applying machine learning research to industry
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obotics and automation has the potential to transform our lives and the way we work. As society evolves, we’re starting to see Artificial Intelligence (AI) appearing more and more in our daily lives. Everything from self-driving cars and automated takeaway delivery, to being able to ask Amazon’s Alexa to turn on a house light is rapidly changing the way we live. AI is being used to diagnose cancers (www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-42357257), to help answer customer queries using chatbots for banking, and for new manufacturing applications. Yet, what does it take to make AI work? AI needs data. Not just any type of data, but structured data that can be processed, analysed and then used to
build models and algorithms to carry out a job. As a human we are bombarded by data every second: our environment, our senses, our interactions, our knowledge and our experience are all used to allow us to take an action or make a decision. This data is unstructured, it’s messy, but as humans, we are very good at making sense of it and then using it. This is one of the big challenges for AI and an area that’s starting to receive more interest as AI is applied to manufacturing and productivity.
MODELLING HUMAN DECISIONS As part of our work, my company is involved in a number of projects that is applying AI and machine learning techniques to industry. The key is to understand the problem you are trying to