Artificial intelligence (AI) is continuously making inroads into domains previously reserved to humans. Robots support workers in the manufacturing sector; digital assistants automate office tasks; intelligent appliances order food based on owners’ preferences or control lighting and temperature in the home in preparation of their arrival. Increasingly sophisticated algorithms have the potential to help address some of humanity’s biggest challenges. They also bring about a number of risks and threats that businesses, governments and policy makers need to understand and tackle carefully.

This white paper sets the scene for understanding where AI stands today and the outlook for the next 5 to 10 years. Taking an industrial perspective, it discusses in more detail: smart homes, intelligent manufacturing, smart transportation/self-driving vehicles, and the energy sector.

It covers current technological capabilities and provides a detailed description of some of the major existing and future challenges related to safety, security, privacy, trust and ethics that AI will have to address at the international level. AI will become one of the core technologies across many different industries and standardization will play a critical role in shaping its future.

The white paper was developed by the IEC Market Strategy Board (MSB) with major contributions from Haier Group and project partner the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI). Supporting project team members included SAP, Huawei, NSW Data Analytics Centre (DAC), China Electronic Standardization Institute (CESI), LG Electronics, and Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO).

This IEC White Paper is available for free download.