Chris note: Last week, we turned to tech expert Jeff Brown (catch up here, here and here). Jeff’s the guy who picked the top-performing stocks on the Nasdaq and S&P 500 in 2016 and 2018… before most people even heard of them.
And as we showed you on Thursday, he’s got his eye on a new tech megatrend today – artificial intelligence (AI). AI could change everything about life as we know it. And below, Jeff shows what it means for investors…
It was the 1933 World’s Fair.
And America got its first glimpse of the “House of Tomorrow.”
The exhibit was the vision of Chicago architect George Fred Keck. At a time when many people were still living in sparse, wooden homes, Keck created a flowing, open home with “curtain walls of glass.”
The model home also featured some very futuristic pieces of technology. It had a dishwasher, an “iceless” refrigerator, air conditioning, and even a passive form of solar energy that could be used to heat water.
There was also a hangar where you could store your private plane…
The exhibit was a hit. Popular Mechanics wrote, “In comparison with the average house, this structure is as remarkable for the ordinary features it lacks as for the extraordinary ones it possesses.”
A vision of the future from the past. Source: Chicago History Museum
More than a million people paid 10 cents to take a tour of the House of Tomorrow and see what the dwellings of the future might look like.
Keep in mind, this was during the depths of the Great Depression. The optimistic vision of the future must have been remarkable.
Fast-forward nearly 100 years, and we know that many of Keck’s visions came true: glass walls… air conditioning… even solar power. These are all commonplace in today’s homes.
Today, I believe we’re on the verge of witnessing a second “House of Tomorrow.” The technology that will power these radical transformations: artificial intelligence (AI).
AI is the most disruptive technology today by far. And for investors who pay attention, it could mean outsized investment returns…
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Siri on Steroids
Ask yourself this: How much time do you spend every week making appointments or managing your calendar? If you’re like me, these small tasks add up. And they distract you from more productive work. But that’s all about to change.
In the “House of Tomorrow,” you’ll have a digital assistant take care of these tasks on your behalf.
Restaurant reservations… doctor and dentist appointments… ordering flowers for a spouse or gifts for the children and grandchildren… dealing with insurance companies… scheduling oil changes…
You name it.
Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri are early iterations of this technology. But these AIs can only perform simple tasks like playing music or setting alarms. In the near future, the tasks will become far more complex.
As an example, Duplex is Google’s bleeding-edge AI that can carry phone conversations just like a human. And the technology is incredible. The AI sounds just like a person… including quirky mannerisms like “um” and “mm-hmm.”
You can watch Google Duplex schedule two appointments by going here.
The first appointment is for a haircut at a local salon. The second is for a restaurant reservation, and the AI had to communicate with somebody who had a heavy accent. In both cases, Duplex handled the calls flawlessly.
In other words, it’s Siri on steroids.
There’s no other way to say it. And it’s so good that it’s not a stretch to imagine widespread use of this technology.
Imagine it’s Mother’s Day. Imagine saying, “Google Assistant, please send flowers to my mother on Sunday. She likes roses. The budget is $70.” And then the AI takes care of it… just like that.
And this technology isn’t decades in the future. It’s here right now.
At writing, anyone can use this technology to schedule appointments in 48 states. And Google expects to roll out support in all 50 states soon. It’s just a matter of complying with local laws and regulations.
And Google just announced that the new version of its AI will be 10 times faster than the first.
Better yet, the new Google Assistant can run at the “edge” of the network. In other words, it doesn’t have to connect to Google’s network every time it gets a request. It can process requests itself.
And AI is not just becoming commonplace in the home. It’s also becoming essential in business.
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How AI Transforms Business
According to a November 2018 survey from McKinsey & Company, 47% of surveyed businesses said they had begun implementing AI into their business. In 2017, that figure was only 20%.
And according to a recent study by MIT’s Sloan Management Review, 85% of companies think AI will offer a competitive advantage.
There will come a time soon that AI won’t just be advantageous to companies – it’ll be a necessity. In the next few years, a company that fails to adopt AI into its business model would be akin to a company that doesn’t use the internet today. It will become obsolete.
You get an idea of how essential this technology is by looking at the levels of acquisitions for AI and ML (machine learning) companies…
In 2018, we saw 241 individual acquisitions of AI/ML companies. That’s a 38% increase from 2017 – and a 363% increase since 2015.
As a relatively new industry, that’s a strong indication of activity. Especially since there just aren’t that many large, well-established AI companies around to acquire.
Most of the activity is in smaller early-stage companies that haven’t reached anywhere near $1 billion-plus valuations.
That means that incumbent technology companies that want access to AI technology and teams of engineers must go out and acquire these smaller companies.
All told, the revenue from the AI market was estimated to be $9.5 billion in 2018. But that figure is expected to grow to $89.8 billion by 2025. That’s a compound annual growth rate of 38%.
As Commonplace as the Internet
We have reached an inflection point with this technology. We are on the cusp of explosive growth.
Few realize it, but in a matter of a few years, AI will be as commonplace as the internet. We’ll look back and wonder how we got along without it.
AI won’t just improve today’s technology. It will reinvent it.
And believe it or not, one of the top AI companies in the world is now Amazon.
I was just at Amazon’s first re:MARS conference in Las Vegas. And I got to see the company’s progress in AI with my own eyes. (Read all about it here.)
Amazon is valued at nearly $1 trillion, so we might think its growth days are behind it. But that’s far from the case.
Thanks to AI, I still see plenty of growth ahead for the company and its stock price.
Regards,
Jeff Brown
Editor, Exponential Tech Investor
P.S. Last Wednesday, I made four bold predictions about our tech future…
You see, in the next few years, technologies like genetic editing, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality will change our world and our lives in ways we can’t imagine. And investors stand to make a small fortune.
I revealed the details at the Early Stage Tech Summit. Plus, I detailed four companies involved in these technologies that could 10x your money over time. If you missed it, you can still watch the replay right here.