Artificial intelligence (AI) is starting to disrupt the workplace as applications powered by machine-learning algorithms begin to permeate enterprises at every level.
Just who’s doing that disrupting – and to whom do they report? Data scientists, business architects and quantitative analysts (also known as quants) are most often the professionals exploiting the burgeoning technology – sometimes under the mantel of the IT department, but often not.
“Unfortunately, IT budgets have been getting decreased, so IT doesn’t have the resources to take on these new responsibilities,” says Dave Schubmehl, director of cognitive systems and content analytics at research firm IDC. “What we’re seeing is that lines of business are taking up machine learning directly and looking to outside vendors to implement it quickly.