Anita Huang, the Operating Partner & CMO of Sinovation Ventures discussed her thesis on the Four Waves of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Investment at RISE Hong Kong.

She started off with introducing the four waves of AI Investment. The first wave is Internet AI, the second wave is Business AI. The third wave is Perception AI and the fourth wave is the Automation AI.

The first wave : Internet AI

This deals with massive data generated in real time by users, something in which we utilize everyday like google, yahoo etc. Internet AI also includes facial recognition, in industries such as security and beauty. Search engines are also a large part of this first wave as their recommendation section largely configured by AI technology. The internet itself by the nature of it is generating data every day, with Mobile Internet taking over China’s market. Anita mentioned that Mobile usage alone is generating 20 TB of data every day. The good news is that the immense amount of data can be analyze to improve current products and improve future user experiences.

The second wave : Business AI

Business AI takes data into business operations. It helps businesses increase efficiency, reduce costs and create new businesses opportunities. Unfortunately, AI consumer integration will take a longer period of time to materialize, depending on the receptiveness of the public’s perception of AI technology. In order to build revolutionary and sustainable AI, a seasoned technological team needs to collaborate with a seasoned business team. Hence, a combination of the top science engineers and top sales people from seasoned management background companies like IBM, Microsoft, Google need to make the step to move into this area. These companies unlike startup companies, have the right technology, business acumen and expertise to position their enterprise in the right direction.

A case study for the second wave is Zhuiyi “Yibot”, a Shenzhen-based chat box that specializes in Deep-Learning based customer support. Among their top clients are China Mobile, Didi, Ctrip etc and they have addressed more than 20 Million customer service matters in the US, China & India.

The third wave : Perception AI

Perception AI is to digitalize the real world and see the world through the lenses of A.I. It is where online and offline markets merge also known as “OMO”. The offline market can be captured through additional sensors & cameras to compliment the online market. Furthermore, traditional industries will also experience massive re-engineering. From Retail to transportation, from logistics to education. All these industries will be highly disrupted by the appearance of Perception AI. Video content will also generate new applications, new interfaces and new user experiences.

One thing we can look forward to is the affordability of future equipment as the third wave is predicted to drive down the price of sensors.

A case study from the third wave is Megvii “face++”, a facial recognition technology that recognizes 3 Million faces simultaneously and has 40 Million recognition server requests per month. It has been applied on many financial services including Alipay and is piloting in future retail markets.  The ideal team diving into perception AI would benefit from domain technology experts with experiences in various natural user interface models, savvy product managers will also help by diving deep into use cases and customer needs.

The fourth and current wave : Automation AI

Automation AI requires time as hardware revolution takes a much longer time than software. Autonomous driving will be the catalyst for future full automation. All cars will be transformed into truly intelligent and autonomous vehicles that could potentially become the next major “operating system”. Automation systems will pollinate growth in the industrialized sector first, then the business sectors and finally home appliances.

One example is Amazon Go’s Autonomous Store, a physical store that utilizes AI to identify specific customers’ preferences and buying style. The fourth wave, Automation AI is still relatively new but Sinovation Ventures has done their research and invested in top scientists and frontier technologies, namely autonomous driving, chips, sensors and robotics.

Commercial AI was not discussed at all as Anita’s Thesis believes that AI will probably occur and commercialize faster in enterprises. And with that, Sinovation Ventures have been observing the markets and they have seen that two of the biggest markets, US and China are set to become AI super powers.

Based on Sinovation Ventures’ analysis of the two powerhouses, a scorecard prediction of the China-US AI market was created. For Internet AI, China and US AI capabilities are relatively on par right now. US has their Internet giants like google while China has Internet giants like Baidu. However, US Business AI are leading at the moment as US businesses tend to be more technology-driven, with their enterprises being more adoptive of new forms of technology.

For Perception AI, China is leading as different sensing technology are being utilized in multiple cities in China. For Automation AI, US is leading the market right now with companies such as Tesla and Uber who have kickstarted this market. But Anita believes that China will catch up with US Automation AI abilities in a couple of years.

All in all, it was a fruitful session for Techsauce as Anita gave an in-depth summary on the history and the future of the AI industry. With multiple new forms of AI technology being discovered and refined at an exponential rate, it will be fascinating to see what the future holds for AI.