AI in Everyday Life

 

Illustration generated with AI using OpenAI’s DALL·E, based on original content by the author.

AI has been around far longer than most people imagine. As a matter of fact, it had its real beginnings seventy years back when it was formally categorised as such at the Dartmouth Work College in 1956. Earlier, in 1950, mathematician Alan Turing came out with his revolutionary paper, “Computing Machinery and Intelligence,” which for the first time grappled with the question of whether it was possible for machines to demonstrate human intelligence. He came up with something called The Imitation Game, also known as the Turing Test, which has since become the foundation of modern AI theory. Conceptually and philosophically, AI or the pursuit of it goes back to 380 BC Greece with the myth of Hephaestus, the god of crafts and metalworking, who brought a few gold handmaids into existence, granting them the knowledge of the gods.

We may be in a time of AI frenzy, where, while mega tech companies are pouring billions upon billions to fund ever more cutting-edge AI research, people across the world fret and worry about the loss of jobs, owing to that. However, the fact of the matter is that AI has already been mainstream for a very long time.  In fact, AI usage and application really took off in the 1980s with enhanced computing power and the advent of ML or machine learning. Slowly, but surely and inexorably, AI has already crept into the mundane and routine activities of our lives so well that we don’t even notice it or realise it.

Where  do we use AI on an everyday basis?

AI is used in a bewildering array of ways and has so intertwined itself in our daily lives that we already cannot imagine our everyday life without the convenience it offers. Let us try to list down the myriad ways in which it serves us.

Finding one’s Way

Google Maps is ubiquitous, and most people, unless they are the Baby Boomer generation or older, would rather rely on it than take the trouble of asking anyone for directions these days. Now, whether that is a good thing or bad is a question for another day, but this handy AI tool sure does make life easier and more manageable for millions of people. Nobody really has a reason to lose their way, no matter where they are in this day and age and if that isn’t a seminal phenomenon, then what is?

Digital Assistants

We use digital assistants all the time without even giving them a thought. I mean, we interact and use Alexa from Amazon, Siri from Apple, Cortana from Microsoft, Bixby from Samsung, and, of course, Google Assistant from Google and don’t make a big deal of it.  It is simply what we do. To these we can now add Generative AI tools like Chat GPT, Claude and Microsoft Copilot to help take our productivity to unprecedented levels. Everyone these days can be a thoroughbred professional going about their jobs and business in the most optimal manner, thanks to the proliferation of digital assistants. This has had a very positive impact on both business and social interactions, allowing everyone to do and achieve way more than was possible in the not so distant past.

Online Shopping and E-commerce

Online commerce and e-commerce have long been a part of our daily lives, with the lockdowns experienced during the Covid pandemic ensuring that everybody got to use these AI enhanced technologies to order practically everything under the sun from practically anywhere. As a matter of fact, AI helps improve and enhance the user experience in a myriad of ways. These range from personalized product recommendations tailored according to previous buyer behaviour and customer profile , and chatbots handling customer queries, to optimal pricing based on variables like supply, demand and prior shopping activity and information about delivery timelines.  

From the business owners’ perspective, one can optimize inventory management on the back of better demand and sales forecasting with the help of AI. Besides, it can help them segment the market more precisely and create fairly accurate customer profiles, helping increase sales in a substantial manner. Moreover, they can use cutting-edge analytics to obtain a precise and accurate idea about how well their business is faring.

AI Aided Travel and Commute

AI-aided travel and commute is bringing about a veritable revolution in our lives. Already, self-driving cars have made it to some cities in the USA and China and Singapore. Tesla boasts of the Autopilot system, which makes it a sort of pioneer for this genre of automobile travel. Waymo’s self-driving cabs, on the other hand, have made their presence felt on the streets of cities like San Francisco and Phoenix. With their ability to anticipate pedestrian movement, zero in on road hazards and make allowance for weather conditions, self-driving cars give us a glimpse of an exciting future that already exists. What’s heartening is that there are stats which show that such cars perform better than humans with fewer accidents per mile to their name.

AI is also deployed to improve traffic management systems, by using real-time data obtained from strategically placed sensors about things like weather, the traffic situation and the road conditions to make an accurate prediction about the likely density of traffic. What’s more, AI enables the optimal management of traffic signals timing on the basis of real-time vehicle density effecting a waiting time saving of up to 25%! AI also enables ride share app companies to practice dynamic pricing by factoring real-time demand by analysing variable factors like demand and supply, weather and the time of the day to come up with optimal pricing.

Healthcare

AI has had a noticeable impact on modern healthcare, being used in everything from diagnostics for early signs of disease to equipping fitness trackers to read and understand activity data, enabling them to make personalised workout modification suggestions. According to the Harvard School for Public Health, there is a 50% projected treatment cost reduction and a 40% projected improvement in health outcomes when using AI in diagnostics.

Content Creation

Content creation has never been faster or easier than it is in the era of AI. Even the most terrible of communicators can come across like an erudite scholar with the help of generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude and Google Gemini. All that you need is to provide these tools with the right brief and prompts, and they will help you come out with outstanding blogs, whitepapers, pitch decks, corporate presentations and e-books.

AI helps you turbocharge the content creation process helping you with everything ranging from SEO/Trends research and conducting an audit of content to help you improve content, to studying competitor data, helping you enhance your content to high-quality image and video generation on the basis of text prompts. Is it any surprise that 87% of marketers say that they use AI to help with their content creation?

Entertainment and Social Media

We are past the stage of surprise at receiving notifications of just the kind of audio and video content we like to consume on our streaming or social media feeds. We are all likely aware that this is no magic but the handiwork of recommendation algorithms.  This may make us lazy and spoiled for choice,  and take away the thrill derived from hunting down old content that you nostalgically pined for, but that is the way the cookie crumbles in this ultra-digital age.

Continuing with how AI has transformed entertainment, we cannot help notice that it has made ace photographers and cinematographers out of all of us. From automatic light adjustments to using filters and lenses as well as blurring backgrounds, AI has democratized image and video creation in profound ways, empowering individuals to express themselves in ways that were impossible to even conceive of not all that long ago.

Enhanced Communication and Productivity

The digitisation of communication has reshaped its paradigm. With speed, reach, and stellar-quality content creation being made available to everyone, the playing field has levelled for everyone to go out there and compete with the biggest and the best in any field. There are so many tools to help us along with this. Gmail, for instance, uses AI to identify spam and even suggests a quick response, making daily correspondence that much easier. Google Translate, on the other hand, helps you communicate in no time across the language barrier. Tools like Grammarly help you improve your writing by checking both your grammar and spelling, as well as giving you a rundown about the tone and readability of what you have written.

Prepare for the world of AI

We are still in unchartered territory when it comes to the impact of AI in our daily lives, as this is a technology that evolves all the time. Already, we have students using Generative AI to complete their assignments, and people from diverse sections of society, ranging from software engineers and doctors to teachers, lawyers and factory workers, worry about their future. Many say that the day is not far when there will be no need for white-collar professionals, thanks to AI taking over their jobs, and the most in demand skills would be the ones pertaining to plumbing!

Yet, we are told not to resist, but accept the inevitable ascent of AI, for it is, after all, another set of transformative technologies-something that mankind has dealt with successfully since its earliest days. Besides, making subtle judgment calls informed by morality is not AI’s strong suit and will always be the preserve of humans. We could help manage and orchestrate AI and use it as an ally rather than view it as an existential threat. But who knows what shape AI in our daily life will take, especially when we are told by technology doyens that Agentic AI (AI capable of taking the initiative on its own, independent of human oversight) is just around the corner.

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