Page 19 - Winter 2025 - 2.pub

AI's shift from

promise to practice

BY MIRIAM FERNÁNDEZ, SUDEEP KESH, and PAUL WHITFIELD

This is a thought leadership report issued There is no doubt
by S&P Global. This report does not that AI still has a
constitute a rating action, neither was it long and
discussed by a rating committee. uncertain road
ahead. Yet we
Highlights share a conviction
AI's development remains with many other

nascent, as does its meaningful market
application at most entities and in most participants that
people's lives, but adoption is very much increased
underway, and progress on new application and the
technologies, including multimodal AI, increasing
edge AI, causal AI, and agentic AI, capabilities of AI
promises to deepen AI's impact in will have
unprecedented ways. profound, and
accelerating,
Investment trends and human talent will effects across all
be central to the course of that
sectors of the
development, to increased applications
economy, all
of new technologies, and to the organizations (both directly and often developments, and projects. Each of
management of existing, potential, and indirectly), on labor markets, on energy those has a combination of strengths and
yet-to-be-recognized risks and usage, and in society--for good and bad limitations that dictate their potential
opportunities.
(see The Rise of AI-Powered Smart Cities, and are, in turn, dictated by the
Our library of research and podcasts May 18, 2024; and Look Forward Journal particularities of their underlying
offers extensive analysis by AI and Artificial Intelligence, Dec. 4, 2024). technologies, applications, the
industry experts and will continue to That conviction demands our ongoing environments in which they operate, and
build over 2025 with early identification attention. Over the past year, we have their governance requirements
and assessment of important trends and (see Podcast: Artificial Intelligence
explored and regularly published analysis
forward-looking analysis of events as Insights, Episode 2: Governance
on the fundamentals of AI technology
they unfold. Considerations for AI, June 13, 2024).
and its development (see Furthermore, developments in AI are
History may yet record 2024 as the year Language Modeling: The Fundamentals, often non-linear, meaning that they often
that AI began to make the shift from Jan. 23, 2024). And we have looked at its don't simply extend the uses of existing
promising technology to ubiquitous tool. deployment, its impact, and its potential- technologies. Rather, developments can
In the public sphere, large language -including due to the paradigm shift in lead to sudden breakthroughs and inspire
models (LLMs) and, more broadly, computational power that will arrive the development of new technologies
generative AI increasingly transitioned when AI is combined with quantum and applications targeting entirely new
from curiosity to a functional aid (at least computing (see Artificial Intelligence and problems and multidisciplinary fields,
for a significant minority of the Quantum Computing: The Fundamentals, such as synthetic biology (see Artificial
developed world), taking a role in Sept. 10, 2024). Intelligence Powering Synthetic Biology:
everything from mundane report writing Such analysis is necessarily a complex The Fundamentals, June 25, 2024).
to the creation of personalized bedtime task. Partly, that is because the Furthermore, a combination of
stories for kids. Across many sectors,
application of AI and the discovery of its breakthroughs can lead to non-linear
previously speculative investment in the
boundaries remain uncertain, evolving, outcomes that could deliver exponential
technology increasingly offered regular and will be dictated by investment trends advancement in AI's capabilities.
and tangible benefits as organizations and the development of human talent
deployed AI-powered initiatives (see AI In (see Investment And Talent Are The Keys The indirect effects of AI
Pharmaceuticals Promises Innovation, Our coverage of AI necessarily extends
To Unlocking AI's Potential, July 9, 2024).
Speed, And Savings, Oct. 1, 2024, and AI beyond the direct application of the
But it also reflects the reality that AI is
In Real Estate: What To Watch As not a single, monolithic technology, but technology to encompass the wider
Adoption Accelerates, May 28, 2024). impact of its adoption. Indirect effects of
myriad different processes,

Arkansas Community Banker | 19 | Winter 2025