How Narrow AI Will Disrupt Every Industry

As 2023 wraps up and we look toward the future, the speed with which AI has been mass-adopted — and how fast it’s evolving — is an indicator of what’s to come. As a futurist who analyzes trends and industry shifts, I’m watching the Narrow AI space closely.

It’s called “narrow” because it functions as a specialist that performs industry- or enterprise-specific tasks. If you’ve ever used a chatbot to return a product or resolve a tech issue, you’ve interacted with Narrow AI. The product recommendations you see after logging into Amazon are another example of Narrow AI.

It’s already transforming how businesses interact with customers, manage operations and make decisions, but I believe the next disruption by Narrow AI will be in software programming. Instead of writing code themselves, human programmers will task their AI programming assistants with developing and testing code. Human programmers will then level up as product integrators, where they’ll now guide the creation of software built and tested by AI assistants.

In the foreseeable future of streaming entertainment, Netflix (or one of its competitors) will develop a text-to-video app that allows you to alter the season finale of your favorite show. Or swap out an actor’s face with a younger version of them — or with your own face.

While that example relates to consumer devices, Narrow AI’s impact on general media and content generation isn’t far off. To visualize what’s possible, rewind to the shift that began around 2007 from broadcast media controlled by a handful of titans to social media where anyone with Internet access can produce and distribute media.

In the context of Narrow A.I, the media landscape will shift from brands sharing information with their followers to brands sharing intelligence. Picture a future in which interior designer Joanna Gaines not only posts updates about her firm’s latest renovation projects but offers her own AI app with intelligence capabilities that guide you through renovating your own home.

Likewise, a wellness app like Weight Watchers will soon communicate with your smart fridge to scan its contents and generate a healthy meal plan for your family based on your daily time constraints.

Lastly, Narrow AI will eventually support humans in their daily relationship-building, written communications, and sales activities — without any of today’s security or privacy concerns. In this reality, your email AI assistant knows your company’s capabilities and sales targets as well as, say, the history of your relationship with a prospective client over the past six months.

Your assistant will synthesize that information to intelligently prepare an email draft that mentions the prospect’s love of the Red Sox; references their company’s latest acquisition; and invites them to demo a product that connects to one of their annual goals.

Personally, I cannot wait to live in a future where AI handles my email, meal planning, home renovation and lets me create a more satisfying ending to Seinfeld or The Sopranos. In the meantime, I’ll be following Narrow AI’s progress and scanning the horizon for indicators of the transformative changes to come.