This report covers the hot topic AI and gives an overview and insights into the topic. Artificial Intelligence (AI) essentially refers to computing technologies that are inspired by the ways people use their brains and nervous systems to reason and make decisions, but typically operate quite differently. As a concept AI has been the source of inspiration for many science fiction writers and futurologists for over a century. Today, advancements in computing and big data have made it a reality with machines now being deployed at a large scale across industries.

The current AI ecosystem consists of machine learning, robotics and artificial neural networks. Over the last few decades the evolution of AI has mostly revolved around the advancement of linguistic, mathematical, and logical reasoning abilities. However, the next wave of AI advancements is towards developing emotional intelligence. One of the major factors driving the current wave of AI growth is the rapid increase in corporate venture capital investment in AI start-ups. On the technology front, rapid advancements in computing power drives the industry to the next level. AI solutions are increasingly being customized to serve the needs across multiple industries such as automotive, healthcare, education, finance, entertainment, and others.

With the rise of AI, more and more start-ups venture into the space. Most worked in the field of Machine Learning algorithms, followed by natural language processing. The annual global funding of AI start-ups experienced a high growth of over 70% average growth rates from US$1.7 billion in 2012 to US$15.2 billion in 2017. Looking at the most recent M&A deals, big tech companies like Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM or Facebook appear often as the acquirer. But also Chinese tech giants like Baidu or rising stars in the start-up world, like Twitter, Uber or Spotify acquire AI companies.

Companies from various industries are currently developing AI and related applications. Google, IBM and Microsoft are leading AI innovations in the IT industry, whereas Amazon and eBay are investing in AI to improve their ecommerce platform and ridesharing company UBER is using AI on autonomous driving, food deliveries and mapping research. Collaborative development is on the rise and leading companies such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google/DeepMind, IBM, and Microsoft are currently working in partnership towards developing AI applications. Acquisition of small scale AI companies by tech giants like Apple, IBM and Microsoft in relevant field is in the rise towards decreasing the learning curve. Other leading companies include Baidu, Facebook and Salesforce.