Machine learning, AI and the enterprise

By 2020, Gartner predicts that smart machines, which use machine learning to complete tasks humans would otherwise perform, will have a widespread impact on the business. And, in less than three years — by 2017 — virtual personal assistants will begin making a mark on the enterprise.

Here’s an example of how machine learning is impacting one organization: Through a partnership with MIT, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston is exploring how to exploit nursing expertise in the labor and delivery department by using machine learning algorithms.

“It turns out, on the labor and delivery floor, when babies are born, it looks a lot like an air traffic control system,” Julie Shah, assistant professor in the aeronautics and astronautics department at MIT, said. One nurse allocates resources for the floor and figures out which patients go where, who needs what, and helps determine when reinforcements should be called in, according to Shah.

“Some people are really good at it, and some people are not good at it all,” she said. “And the people who are really good at it can save millions of dollars just by making better decisions — because they have the whole picture or more expertise or have been around longer.”

But, the most experienced nurse is not always the one calling the shots. “So the question is, how can we support nurses in training or nurses who are newer to the role to be as efficient as the most experienced nurses?” Shah said. An answer could be machine learning.

Read more about how Beth Israel is leveraging machine learning in the ER and take a closer look at the work Shah’s doing to solve the human-robot collaboration problem.