No matter the size or scale of your business, the chances are there’s room to streamline processes and improve efficiency, which is where AI (artificial intelligence) as a service – often referred to simply as AIaaS – comes into its own. The introduction of cloud AI can help level up your business and allow your internal teams to spend more time doing value-add, strategic thinking. In this article, we’ve explored all things AIaaS, including exploring the available providers to consider and the reasons to adopt this innovative service.
What is AI cloud computing?
AI as a service is a virtual model that provides your business with access to artificial intelligence technology and tools – without the need for extensive in-house expertise or significant investment. The service is accessed via the internet, meaning you can leverage cloud AI remotely from anywhere with a connection.
Which providers offer cloud AI as a service?
Many leading cloud providers already offer comprehensive AI cloud services, allowing you to introduce machine learning and intelligence alongside other cloud native services. Examples of our leading partners who provide AI services include:
Amazon Web Services
AWS provides a range of AI services, including SageMaker (designed for building machine learning models), Rekognition (designed for video and image analysis), and Comprehend (a natural language processor).
Microsoft Azure
Like AWS, Microsoft offers a selection of AI solutions. For instance, Bot Service (designed to build intelligent bots) and Cognitive Services (machine intelligence for tasks that involve speech, language, and knowledge).
What are the benefits of AIaaS?
As AI capabilities grow and evolve, the solution is becoming increasingly-popular. Our top ten reasons to recommend AI as a service include:
1. Scalability
AI in the cloud can be easily scaled to suit changing and evolving business requirements, with flexible, dynamic, and automated resource allocation ensuring workloads are always efficiently-balanced. Meanwhile, pay-as-you-go pricing, means you’re only ever spending on the service you need.
2. Automated processing
One of the greatest strengths of cloud AI is that it automates a lot of the otherwise-manual or repetitive tasks, so you can spend internal time on strategic activities. For instance, AI as a service can automate data cleaning and normalisation, which both saves time and reduces human error.
3. Cost efficiency
When choosing cloud AI services, you’ll likely be presented with flexible (and often pay-as-you-go) pricing models that allow you to find a near-bespoke solution that supports your wider IT infrastructure, without paying for features you don’t need. And, of course, with this being a virtual service, you’ll not need to make significant investments on physical hardware.
4. Data security
Reputable AIaaS providers will offer best-in-class, industry-compliant security and privacy. That said, data security is a shared responsibility that applies to all types of computing, so, while your provider will implement robust, regulatory-adherent measures, it’s also important to choose hard-to-guess passwords and introduce features such as two-factor authentication.
5. Speed to market
When you adopt AI as a service, you’ll be able to leverage effective, pre-built algorithms and APIs that can be immediately-introduced to reduce application development time from the get-go. What’s more, integrating advanced AI capabilities can accelerate innovation, which helps your business stay ahead of the competition.
6. Cloud integration
AI can be seamlessly integrated alongside other virtual services and applications, to enhance your overarching cloud architecture. This streamlines processes, simplifies cross-environment data sharing and collaboration, and improves everyday workflow.
7. User-friendly interfaces
The goal of an AIaaS provider is to make AI as accessible as possible to the widest range of users, so you can expect your interface to be user-friendly and intuitive. This makes it easy for your business to benefit from the advantages of cloud AI, regardless of your internal expertise.
8. Advanced analytics
Take the complexity out of managing and analysing large datasets with AI cloud services. Automation can clean, normalise, and organise your data, while machine learning provides key insights. AIaaS helps you better-leverage your data with speed, to make informed business decisions that drive growth.
9. Access to advanced technology
Managed cloud AI as a service offers your business access to extremely advanced technology that can be used to drive innovation and growth. You’ll be able to leverage cutting edge models and algorithms to streamline processes and solve problems with simplicity.
10. Future proofing
Adopting cloud AI as a service helps to future proof your business, by allowing you to quickly adapt to future industry trends, business growth, and ongoing innovation.
What to consider before investing in AI as a service
As equally important as the benefits are the considerations to make before investing in and committing to AI as a service. When choosing a provider, bear the following in mind:
- Vendor lock-in: This refers to being ‘locked’ into a hard-to-break agreement with a specific AI cloud service provider. Before signing up, review the contract terms and identify how simple it would be to switch providers in future.
- Internal data quality: To truly take advantage of AI cloud capabilities, it’s important to have a good depth of quality data that can be used to train machine learning models.
- IT integration: Before investing in a cloud AI solution, evaluate how well the service will work alongside your existing infrastructure. Consider the level of customisation you’ll need to fully-tailor the tool to suit business needs.
- Long-term strategy: AI is becoming increasingly available, but before investing in this service consider your long-term strategy and the bigger role artificial intelligence will play.
- Provider reputation: It should go without saying, but make sure to choose a cloud AI provider you can trust. Compare customer reviews, evaluate their industry reputation, and carefully review the SLA.
- Security and compliance: When it comes to business data, security should be a priority, so ensure your chosen AIaaS provider meets industry compliance requirements (all reputable providers should offer robust security measures).
Interested in learning more about AIaaS?
If AI sounds like a virtual service you’re likely to find useful, reach out to our team of cloud experts who’ll be able to offer bespoke guidance based on your specific needs and long-term goals. Or, for more general information about the way cloud computing can benefit your business, including migrating to the cloud, explore our full range of cloud blogs.
