There was a time when enterprises introduced technology as an afterthought into operations. However, the last two decades have seen technology morph into a formidable force equipped to assist companies with IT operations and turbocharge the way entire enterprises are run. In fact, we are now seeing an exponential increase in the levels of disruption where enterprises are unable to adopt new tech into their core business offerings.

I believe this development confirms what experts have been predicting. Namely, the coming of singularity. And by singularity, I don’t mean a definite point when the world will be transformed far more by machine-based intelligence than it is now — I mean singularity as a continuous process of exponential change driven by the unprecedented growth of technology. This trend calls for a more iterative approach to business, and I see it promising companies across domains several previously unforeseen opportunities.

If you look around, you will find several examples of enterprises leveraging this trend by introducing hitherto unheard-of capabilities. Take, for example, the AI-based personal assistants from Apple and Amazon — Siri and Alexa. Both are equipped to carry out a range of tasks in response to voice commands that can be applied to several front-, middle- and back-office functions. Similarly, narrow-scoped AI is being adopted by various other companies, including other tech giants like Facebook and Google, to monitor customer interfaces — with a continuity inconceivable for a human workforce — to help customize products in real time and enhance the customer experience.

Elsewhere, advances in machine learning technologies have created deep neural learning networks that decipher, translate and respond to linguistic cues iteratively. In the financial sector, this has led to the emergence of chatbots. Essentially, automated chat systems, which run on AI, serve as bots that stand in for humans by quickly learning and adapting to a user’s emotional cues and responding to expressed current requirements faster and more effectively than them.

The success of such bots in financial services has encouraged banks to step up its AI-adoption. Bank of America, for example, has officially begun putting Erica, its virtual assistant, to use. The AI-empowered assistant will provide tailor-made financial suggestions over mobile phones to provide advice on the go to customers with an aim to help improve their financial overview.

Banks are also leading from the front in embracing the transformational possibilities of technological development by deploying robo-advisory services as an extension of wealth management. Several major banks and financial firms have deployed these cognitive-enabled machine-learning tools to provide customers with up-to-date information when they need it, nearly instantly, while delivering valuable insights to banks on clients they have so far overlooked for services, including retirement plans, pension funds and health insurance.

Futurist visionary Ray Kurzweil, who is credited with having given the concept of singularity a lot of its current currency, is reported to have said that the technological singularity he famously predicted in his The Singularity Is Near book will become a reality by 2045.

While Kurzweil’s predictions may seem outlandish and controversial, the crux of the idea that lies in his prediction regarding the exponential growth in computing power is already here and transforming all walks of life.