AI For The SI

The long-predicted proliferation of artificial intelligence solutions was largely delivered in 2016. Cloud providers like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Salesforce and Oracle all did their share in democratizing the technology.

"Applications and platforms are embedding AI at every layer to improve efficiency and reduce complexity in business software," said Amit Zavery, senior vice president for cloud platform and integration products at Oracle.

The channel will start embracing those technologies and establishing formal practices around them in 2017.

Large systems integrators like Accenture are already making major investments.

Marc Carrel-Billiard, a managing director at Accenture Labs, said the market is exploding, and soon "AI will become a first-class citizen of the enterprise."

Implementing intelligent automation and AI will become core competencies demanding a "fundamentally new approach," Carrel-Billiard said.