Legacy Systems and Poor Quality of Tools are Top Barriers to AI Adoption

Having to transition from existing legacy systems is the top barrier to incorporation of artificial intelligence or machine learning into organizations today, cited by 18% of developers actively working with AI or ML in Evans Data’s recently released AI, ML and Big Data Development Survey. However, the quality of existing tools was cited by almost the same number (17.4%). Other factors, such as budget or the cost of materials, regulatory or governance issues, and corporate policy restrictions were also cited by nearly as many AI developers as the top two barriers.

The June 2018 survey of active AI developers also showed that model selection is a particularly challenging aspect of AI or ML implementation along with optimizing for specific parameters and increasing algorithm accuracy. Data ingestion is the phase of AI-related development that proves most vexing to fully a third of AI developers while algorithm development is the top problem area for nearly a quarter.

“Legacy systems that are already in place and the current state of specialized tools are fairly expected issues to come up as software technology evolves to embrace artificial intelligence and machine learning,” said Janel Garvin, CEO of Evans Data Corp, “But what we also saw here was a close list of problems cited in addition to those two, and that close range is illustrative of a new but quickly maturing market.”

Additional insights from the worldwide survey of AI practitioners focus on AI in the large enterprise, hardware, parallelism, algorithms, and other focal areas crafted into data research on questions contributed by some of the largest software companies in the world.

The new Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Big Data Survey provides over 130 pages of data, analysis and graphs with an industry standard margin of error of 5%. Topics covered include: Demographics and Firmographics, Perspectives on AI, Enterprise AI, Parallelism, AI Concepts and Approaches, Tools and Processes, Security Concerns, Conversational Systems, Blockchain, Infrastructure Optimization, and more.

See the complete Table of Contents and Methodology here: Table of Contents

It’s Spring – Time for Developer Conference Season

When springtime arrives, developers and developer relation professionals know that it is major developer conference time in the US and around the world. Of course it all started with the annual Evans Data Developer Relations Conference, this year in Palo Alto California at the end of March. Most of you know that there are developer events and conferences throughout the year on every continent. At the same time, some of the most important and influential conference,s that impact developer programs and developers, are all scheduled during the months of May and June.

    

The Grand Slam of Springtime Developer Conferences

Facebook started things off on May 1 & 2 with their F8 conference in San Jose California. This week we have Microsoft Build 2018 in Seattle (from May 7 to 9) and Google IO 2018 in Mountain View (May 8 & 9) in the same week. It was fun to hear Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore, Corporate Vice President of Operating Systems, tell developers during his day 2 keynote that he would end at 10am so that some developers could switch over to the Google IO opening keynote. Apple will complete the grand slam with WWDC 2018 in San Jose from June 4th to 9th.

But Wait, there’s even more for Developers this Spring

Ciscolive! happens in Orlando Florida June 10-14. You might think that Cisco is a networking and hardware company, but they also have a great developer program with DevNet. I attended last year’s event in Las Vegas and the DevNet Zone has a huge exhibit and workshop space and loads of developer sessions during the conference.

DocuSign’s Momentum developer conference takes place in San Francisco on June 20-21, just before the end of Spring. “If you thought replacing paper with eSignature was a win, get ready to go further. It’s time for the modern System of Agreement. Get the insights, inspiration, and networking to take advantage of all that’s possible, next, and new with DocuSign.”

So Much New Tech to Learn. So Little Time. Tons of Developer Fun!

So much development tech to digest in such a short period of time. Let’s summarize them all with: more AI, more cloud, more services, more devices, more IoT, compute at the edge, more serverless, more APIs, more tools and more fun for developers of all types, sizes and locations. I’ll try to cover more in coming DevRelate blog posts.

If you are having a developer conference that starts before the first day of Summer (in the Northern Hemisphere), send me an email with the details.

 

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David Intersimone “David I”
Vice President of Developer Communities
Evans Data Corporation
davidi@evansdata.com
Blog: https://devnet.evansdata.org/
Skype: davidi99
Twitter: @davidi99

Evans Data’s Developer Insights for Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Big Data Projects

With the amount of data being collected by businesses and the rise in compute power on desktops, servers, private/public/hybrid cloud systems, mobile devices, and edge connectors, every developer is looking to leverage new AI, machine learning, deep learning and big data technologies. At just about every developer conference and webinar there are presentations and demonstrations of how to use modern techniques to gain business insights and perform analysis and actions close to the customer interaction, edge connection and all along the computing infrastructure. New developer technologies are helping accelerate the digital transformations globally in every industry segment.

Last week I hosted a track on the use of “IoT in Enterprise” at the IoT Tech Expo North America conference in Silicon Valley. Along with the IoT tracks there were two co-located events covering Blockchain and AI. While I roamed the exhibit hall during breaks in my track sessions, you could see and feel the energy surrounding the coming together of IoT devices, data collection, analytics, and AI technologies for business benefits. Developers and decision makers were having wonderful conversations in the aisles and hallways. In my conversations with speakers and attendees it was clear that we are witnessing an acceleration in the developer and business use of machine learning.

Developers Leaving Rules Based Engines for Machine Learning in AI Projects

Yesterday’s Evans Data press release, “Developers Leaving Rules Based Engines for Machine Learning in AI Projects“, (SANTA CRUZ, CA. Dec 5, 2017), reports that just over 50% of developers engaged in artificial intelligence projects now solely implement machine learning technology in those projects, according Evans Data’s recently released Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Big Data Survey. Those using rules based engines alone accounted for 27% of the AI developers while just a little more than 22% are using a hybrid system that combines both machine learning techniques with rules-based technologies.

The rules-based system is one of the simplest types of AI. Also known as an expert system, a rule-based system encodes expert knowledge, usually in a fairly narrow area, into an automated system that can perform tasks or deliver answers in a manner similar to a human. Machine learning, on the other hand, enables the system to create rules on the fly through training which results in a model that is used to classify data. While the rules-based systems have been used longer, machine learning has been increasingly embraced by AI developers.

“There’s plenty of excellent applications for rules-based engines and they have been used for years,” said Janel Garvin, CEO of Evans Data Corp, “but today we’re seeing developers eagerly adopting machine learning algorithms into their projects and training them so they can evolve and function on their own. Major vendors and organizations in the industry are helping to spur this development by providing frameworks and tools to facilitate machine learning development.”

Related data showed that concept clustering, artificial neural networks, and reinforcement learning were techniques that were most likely to be used in AI projects. Speech recognition is also becoming a popular way of interacting with AI systems with 45% of AI developers incorporating this technology into their projects.

The new Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Big Data Survey is conducted twice a year with developers actively working in those disciplines and has a margin of error of 4.8%. The full 150 page report includes sections on Demographics, Industry Landscape, AI Concepts and Methods, Barriers and Challenges for AI, Enterprise AI, I and Cloud, IoT and Machine Learning, Parallel Processing, Hardware and Infrastructure Needs, Conversational Systems, Security Needs, and more.

See the complete Table of Contents and Methodology here: Table of Contents

 

DevRelate Blog Posts Related to AI, Machine Learning and Big Data

Here are a few additional DevRelate blog posts that cover AI, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, tools, frameworks and more. In looking at many developer programs, I see new additions to embrace AI and Big Data technologies in a range of communities and businesses.

 

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David Intersimone “David I”
Vice President of Developer Communities
Evans Data Corporation
davidi@evansdata.com
Blog: https://www.devrelate.com/blog/
Skype: davidi99
Twitter: @davidi99

Your DevRel Garage, Loft, and Hands on Lab at a Coding Camp / Workspace

I was in San Francisco yesterday at the Galvanize Coding Camp and Workspace Location. Conjoined with the Galvanize location is the IBM Bluemix Garage. After drivng to the city and parking, I walked to the SoMa (South of Market Street) location and entered a wonderfully collaborative space full of engaged, excited and focused developers and students. There are many of these coding camp and workspace destinations all over the world. I’ve visited several schools and workspaces in my travels, but this one also included IBM’s Bluemix Garage. The combination created a Garage, Loft, and Hands on Lab all in one location. I went to the board room where I was part of a round table discussion lead by Willie Tejada, IBM’s Chief Developer Advocate.

Willie Tejada - IBM - Developer Relations Conference

The topic for the discussion was “How Cognitive Intelligence and Cloud are Reshaping App Development”. My thoughts during the discussion will have to wait for another blog post. For me, it was visiting the combination of the Galvanize location and the IBM Bluemix Garage. It was a marriage of learning, programming, design thinking, Watson cognitive development, and more.  I didn’t want to leave.

As I drove back down the coastal Highway 1 to the Evans Data office in Santa Cruz I had time to look at the Pacific Ocean and think about the combination and what it can mean to Developer Relations Programs around the world. Combining the educational environment, the startup vibe, the real world tools, and the spirit of adventure into a workspace conducive to real breakthroughs in application development. In one location you can combine students, professionals and executives learning Data Science, Data Engineering, Web Development, Cloud Native Essentials and Development, Data Science for Executives, and more. You’ll find meetups, happy hours, tech talks, and mentors.

Garage Loft Hands on Lab

Quoting from the Galvanize web site: “Traditionally, industry and education have existed in separate worlds. At Galvanize, we’re bridging this longstanding gap by bringing industry partners, ambitious students, world-class education, and passionate founders under one roof.”

If you can’t afford to have your own dedicated popup loft, hands on lab or garage, find a partner in your town (and in cities with companies and developers you want to reach out to) that has a Coding Camp and/or co-location development space. You’ll find that combining their business with your developer outreach will create an intoxicating, practical, beneficial, efficient and fruitful environment for students, start ups and enterprises.

Garage Loft Hands on Lab

Here are a few links to additional information for the Galvanize and IBM BlueMix Garage location that I visited at 44 Tehama Street.

It was great to be able to spend a little time with Willie who is one of our keynote presenters at the 13th Annual Evans Data Developer Relations Conference. Willie Tejada‘s keynote (Monday, March 27 at 1:15pm) is titled “Developer Advocacy in the Cognitive Era”. The keynote description is “Developers are the primary catalyst for today’s business disruption, defining the future of technology and transformation. IBM’s mission is to help developers realize their potential and identify the tools for success in three key areas: AI & Cognitive, Cloud Infrastructure, Data Security & Privacy. To achieve leadership in this space will mean harnessing the power of cognitive to redefine the way we solve today’s business, world and human challenges.”

Guy Kawasaki

It’s not too late to register for DRC 2017. You’ll also hear Guy Kawasaki’s keynote “The Art of Evangelism” on Monday morning.

Does your Developer Relations Program Hook Up with Code Camp and Workspace Locations?

Send me an email if your developer relations program partners with code camps and/or workspace locations. I’d like to hear how you combine your outreach and leverage the entrepreneurial environment for the benefit of both companies.

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Machine and Deep Learning SDKs, Tools, Frameworks and Systems

We’ve seen the rise of multiple big data solutions in the past few years. Building on top of the volume, variety and velocity of data, we’ve seen the growing need for automating business decisions based on the knowledge coming from online systems, sensors and connected devices. In order to take advantage of this wealth of data we’re seeing the rapid rise of a wide range of machine and deep learning SDKs, tools, frameworks, systems, services, and libraries. This blog post highlights some of the available machine learning and deep learning SDKs available from leading platform vendors, hardware vendors, researchers, and open source projects. It’s a great time to be a software engineer and to have all of these technologies provided by developer relations programs.

Machine and Deep Learning SDKs

 

Machine and Deep Learning SDKs

Here are a few of the many machine learning and deep learning SDKs, tools, frameworks, systems, services, and libraries that are available for developers to use in their cognition-based, big data driven applications. I’ve divided the list up into services/systems, frameworks, libraries and tools (although the distinctions are arbitrary as some provide both a service along with an API, SDK or framework).
16631224-Abstract-word-cloud-for-Machine-learning-with-related-tags-and-terms-Stock-Photo  deep learning tag cloud

Services/Systems

Frameworks

Libraries

Tools/SDKs

Machine Learning Courses

 

Evans Data’s AI and Big Data Developer Research Report 2016 V2

This report focuses on tools, methodologies, and concerns related to implementing machine learning, deep learning, image recognition, pattern recognition and other forms of artificial intelligence as well as efficiently storing, handling, and analyzing large datasets and databases from a wide range of sources. Artificial intelligence is permeating software development in many ways and many industries, which necessitates a thorough knowledge of how developers are doing this. Big Data, often related, is also becoming a reality for more and more companies; this report provides valuable insight into developer opinions on these topics.

This volume includes research and analysis covering topics such as Perceptions of the AI and Big Data Landscapes, AI & Big Data Developer Demographics, Decision-Making for AI & Big Data, Barriers and Challenges for Data Analytics, AI Concept and Approaches, Conversational Systems & Virtual Assistants, Real-Time Events & Time Series Processing, Big Data & IoT, Collaboration in Big Data & Data Science, Advanced Analytics Tools and Services, Databases & Data Warehousing, Hadoop, Parallelism & Big Data, Operating Systems & Languages, and Tools Used for AI & Big Data.

You can take a look at the AI and Big Data Developer Research report table of contents and sample report pages at http://www.evansdata.com/reports/viewRelease.php?reportID=37

Does your Developer Relations Program provide a Machine or Deep Learning SDK, Tool, Library, Framework or Service?

If you’re looking for additional Machine Learning frameworks, libraries, and software you can check out the “Awesome Machine Learning” curated list of resources on GitHub. You’ll find additional resources for a wide range of programming languages.

Would it be cool if your developer relations program used AI to support your community members? Using AI and bot technology to answer common questions or point developers in the right direction?

Am I missing a machine learning or deep learning library, framework, SDK, tool, service, system or API that your developer relations program provides?  Send me an email if I am missing one or more.

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David Intersimone “David I”
Vice President of Developer Communities
Evans Data Corporation
davidi@evansdata.com
Blog: https://www.devrelate.com/blog/
Skype: davidi99
Twitter: @davidi99

 

Connected Cars, Voice Control and AI News at CES 2017

As predicted, there has been a flurry of announcements by automotive companies related to autonomous vehicles, voice control and the use of AI at this year’s CES 2017. I’ve previously blogged about “Developer Relations Programs for Self Driving and Connected Cars“, “Developer Relations: Doing Great Things with Telematics” and “Voice Control APIs“. At this week’s CES 2017 show in Las Vegas, there have been several announcements and articles about the coming together of connected cars, voice control and AI. It’s so cool to see collaborations between car, platform, cloud and machine learning companies to bring next generation features to automobiles. Here are just a few of the many Connected Cars, Voice Control and AI articles coming out of CES 2017 Las Vegas.

Connected Cars, Voice Control and AI

Connected Cars, Voice Control and AI News

 

pexels-photo-290470

 

CES 2017 Automotive Related Keynotes

 

Connected Cars, Voice Control and AI

 

Exciting Automotive Times for Sure!

 

David I - Developer Relations Conference

David Intersimone “David I”
Vice President of Developer Communities
Evans Data Corporation
davidi@evansdata.com
Blog: https://www.devrelate.com/blog/
Skype: davidi99
Twitter: @davidi99