Blockchain is the next big thing in the world of technology. As a shared, immutable ledger, it facilitates the process of recording transactions and tracking assets in a business network. While an asset can be tangible or intangible, virtually anything of value can be tracked and traded on a blockchain network. The blockchain network reduces risk and cuts cost for everyone involved.
The blockchain is especially advantageous for businesses since the network makes it faster and accurate to deliver this information. A blockchain network can track orders, payments, accounts, and production. AI, on the other hand, is a technology that leverages computers and data to solve problems and even mimic the capability of the human mind.
AI and Blockchain
When paired with artificial intelligence (AI), both the technologies can transform the financial services industry, life sciences, healthcare, and even supply chain. AI is extensively used to automate repetitive tasks, improve decision making, and offer a better customer experience.
Right now, the blockchain network acts as a singular view of the truth to all the permissioned members. This allows them to gain confidence and trust in their transactions with their other businesses while improving efficiency and opportunity. With so much in parallel, it is no surprise that AI and blockchain are now being seen as a perfect technological match.
The application of AI in the blockchain would lead to improvements across areas such as data protection, smart computing, data monetisation, and creation of diverse data sets. Blockchain could be used to accurately document each data and variable involved in decision making of AI algorithms. Here is a look at the combined value of blockchain and AI and use cases.
AI and Blockchain: A look at the combined value
- Authenticity: The digital record offered by Blockchain technology can be used as an insight into the framework behind AI and the provenance of the data used by the algorithm. This could help overcome the challenge of explainable AI, which will help improve trust in data integrity. Using blockchain to store and distribute AI models will provide an audit trail, and pairing blockchain and AI can enhance data security. The combination of AI and blockchain could lead to users trusting the recommendations from AI programs.
- Augmentation: AI’s ability to rapidly and comprehensively read, understand and correlate the data at speed can be used to bring a new level of intelligence to blockchain-based business networks. Blockchain can help AI scale by providing access to large volumes of data from within and outside of the organisation. This, in extension, will result in AI offering more actionable insights and improved data usage. The combination can create a trustworthy and transparent data economy.
- Automation: For businesses that span multiple parties, the common focus is to reduce friction, add speed, and increase efficiency. AI, automation and blockchain can bring this focus by adding new value to business processes. A good example would be embedding AI models in smart contracts executed on a blockchain. This can help with executing transactions, recalling expired products, resolving disputes, and even select the most sustainable shipping method.
AI and Blockchain: Use cases
The impact of AI is already being felt positively in a number of industries. The next logical step for businesses to extract maximum value would be to bring AI into blockchain, which will deliver new opportunities. Here is a look at how AI and blockchain help deliver new opportunities in healthcare, life sciences, financial services, and supply chain.
- Healthcare: AI is already advancing a number of fields in healthcare and can be used for surfacing treatment insights, supporting user needs, and identifying insights from patient data. AI can also be used to reveal patterns using that data and with that patient data on blockchain, organisations can work together to improve care without compromising on patient privacy.
- Financial services: The financial services industry can benefit by enabling trust, removing friction from multi-party transactions, and even accelerate the speed of transactions. Everything about financial services can become trustworthy and faster with AI and blockchain. Applicants can grant consent to access their personal information stored in the blockchain, while the organisation offering financial services can use automated processes to evaluate the application. This will lead to faster closings and improve customer satisfaction.
- Life sciences: The pharmaceutical industry can add visibility and traceability to the drug supply chain using AI and blockchain. This will result in increased success rate of clinical trials, while combining advanced data analysis with a decentralised framework can enable data integrity, transparency, patient tracking, and consent management. The technology can even be used to automate trial participation and data collection.
- Supply Chain: Supply chain has largely been a paper-based process industry but AI and blockchain can transform supply chains across industries. They can make the data shareable and trustworthy and even add intelligence and automation to execute transactions. A manufacturer can track their carbon emissions data at the product or parts level and store the data in blockchain and use AI to gain insights on how to decarbonise their operation.