artificial narrow intelligence (ANI)
What It Means
Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI) refers to AI systems that are designed to perform one specific task extremely well, like recognizing faces in photos or recommending products. Unlike science fiction AI that can do anything humans can do, ANI systems are specialists - they excel at their narrow purpose but cannot transfer that knowledge to other tasks. This describes virtually all AI systems in use today in business.
Why Chief AI Officers Care
ANI systems represent the vast majority of AI implementations CAIOs will deploy and manage, making them the foundation of most AI strategies. Understanding ANI helps CAIOs set realistic expectations with stakeholders who might expect AI to solve problems beyond its narrow scope. It also guides resource allocation decisions since each business problem typically requires its own specialized ANI system rather than one universal solution.
Real-World Example
A retail company's recommendation engine that suggests products to customers based on purchase history is ANI - it excels at product recommendations but cannot suddenly pivot to handle customer service chat or inventory management without being completely redesigned and retrained for those different tasks.
Common Confusion
Business leaders often expect ANI systems to be more flexible than they actually are, assuming that an AI good at one task can easily adapt to related tasks. People frequently confuse ANI with Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), which would have human-like reasoning across multiple domains but doesn't exist yet.
Industry-Specific Applications
See how this term applies to healthcare, finance, manufacturing, government, tech, and insurance.
Healthcare: In healthcare, ANI systems are deployed for specific clinical tasks like medical imaging analysis, drug discovery, or pr...
Finance: In finance, ANI systems are deployed for specific functions like fraud detection, algorithmic trading, credit scoring, a...
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Includes:
- 6 industry-specific applications
- Relevant regulations by sector
- Real compliance scenarios
- Implementation guidance
Technical Definitions
NISTNational Institute of Standards and Technology
"[an AI system that] is designed to accomplish a specific problem-solving or reasoning task."Source: OECD_Artificial_Intelligence_in_Society
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