The global business value of artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to hit $1.2 trillion this year, with virtual agents accounting for 46 per cent of this value, according to Gartner.

Along with virtual agents, the other significant portion of this value will be will be represented by decision support/augmentation through AI – such as deep neural networks – which will account for 36 per cent. Elsewhere, smart products will account for 18 per cent of value, while decision automation systems will represent just two per cent.

Looking ahead, AI-derived business value is predicted to reach $3.9 trillion in 2022. By this point, it’s expected that decision support/augmentation will account for 44 per cent of business value, followed by 26 per cent for virtual agents, 16 per cent for decision automation systems, and 14 per cent for smart products.

“AI promises to be the most disruptive class of technologies during the next 10 years due to advances in computational power, volume, velocity and variety of data, as well as advances in deep neural networks,” said John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner. “One of the biggest aggregate sources for AI-enhanced products and services acquired by enterprises between 2017 and 2022 will be niche solutions that address one need very well. Business executives will drive investment in these products, sourced from thousands of narrowly focused, specialist suppliers with specific AI-enhanced applications.”