The writing is on the wall. AI, or Artificial Intelligence, is changing lives, and will continue to do so to increasingly dramatic degrees. Accenture’s research article, Artificial Intelligence is the future of growth, says “AI could double annual economic growth rates in 2035” and “The impact of AI technologies on business is projected to increase labor productivity by up to 40 percent.” MIT Sloan Management Review published the research report, Reshaping Business with Artificial Intelligence, which states “Almost 85% believe AI will allow their companies to obtain or sustain a competitive advantage. But only about one in five companies has incorporated AI in some offerings or processes.”

What does it really mean?  Enormous untapped potential!  No wonder AI startups experienced their best year ever in 2018. With so much at stake, the race is on amongst application vendors to gain that AI competitive advantage in their products. This often leads to the question of whether to develop the technology in-house or to embed proven 3^rd party technology. The pros and cons are quite obvious. While in-house development means IP ownership, it does require resource investments for initial development, ongoing enhancements (i.e. new features), maintenance (i.e. bug fixes) and customer support. Moreover, the development and maintenance cycles may lead to delay in time-to-market, which could mean sink or swim in a hypercompetitive market. On the other hand, incorporating 3^rd party technology means shorter time-to-market, reduced risk of ‘first release’ quality issues, and lower resource investments over the product lifecycle while forgoing IP ownership.

When it comes to the question of “To OEM or Not?”, there is no right or wrong answer. Since R&D resources are one of the biggest cost drivers, the OEM option may seem appealing to many. Given the strategic impact of such a decision, a comprehensive evaluation of potential OEM partners seems more than appropriate. Join us for tailor-made webinar, How Proven AI Accelerates Your App Competitiveness, where Micro Focus CTO for IDOL (unstructured data analytics), Dave Humphrey, discusses the key questions that should be addressed in choosing a technology partner:

• Does the technology address our gaps?
• How proven is it?
• How easy is it to embed?
• How flexible is the licensing?

Two of the biggest rewards of embedding 3^rd party technology are time and money.  So, invest 30 min in a free webinar may just be a start of a rewarding journey.