Are you using AI without realising it?

We are going to look at the AI tools we use daily without even realising they’re powered by artificial intelligence.

How many of these gadgets or tools do you use? Here are 20 that are pretty common in everyday life and give an idea of just how embedded AI is already in our daily lives without us even realising it.

Diving into the list of 20 AI tools we all use in daily life:

1. Personal virtual assistants like Siri, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa

2. Cameras on your smartphone: AI-enhanced photo processing for better image quality is now built into many of them

3. Fraud detection systems in mobile banking use AI to identify unusual transactions

4. Recommendation engines used by e-commerce websites to suggest products to customers. Also, think about AI the next time you use Netflix, YouTube and Spotify. They suggest content to you based on your previous choices – this is artificial intelligence

5. Google search and other search engines use AI for ranking and relevance to your search term

6. Have you used Uber lately or an alternative ride-sharing app? AI-driven route optimisation will be working behind the scenes along with tools to set pricing based on demand

7. Virtual assistants used by customer service representatives to answer questions and resolve issues

8. Chatbots are used by businesses to provide customer service or sales support. Yes, you guessed it, that’s AI in action!

9. Image recognition software used by social media platforms to tag photos is artificial intelligence at work

10. Social media algorithms: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter – all use AI to create your feed

11. Enjoying a virtual reality game in the evening? Well, virtual reality and augmented reality technologies used in gaming, education and training all use AI

12. Speech recognition software used by voice assistants and by businesses to transcribe audio recordings

13. Going somewhere nice for the holidays? Bet you’ll be plugging the route into Google Maps. Guess what, that uses AI too?!

14. Need to brush up on your Spanish, French or Swahili? Duolingo is the first place to go. Language learning apps like Duolingo use AI-assisted language learning platforms to create content and new courses

15. Writing an important report or email? You may use a spelling and grammar checker. Yes, even the ones built into Microsoft Word are powered by AI. Grammarly too is powered by artificial intelligence.

16. Not getting millions of spam emails? That is thanks to artificial intelligence. Spam filters are used to block unwanted emails

17. Need a mortgage? Well, AI is in the mix helping the lender decide if you’re a safe bet. Banks use credit scoring models using artificial intelligence to assess the creditworthiness of borrowers

18. Resume screening tools: Applying for a new job? Well, artificial intelligence is used here too by recruiting companies. AI scans and filters job applications based on keywords

19. If you’re keeping your home nice and toasty or calmingly cool using a smart thermostat, you are using AI-powered technology. These devices learn and adjust temperature preferences – it’s all AI

20. Health and fitness apps are everywhere. You can wear them, they can track you and tell you where to improve and how you’ve done. That’s AI technology that can monitor activity data and then suggest exercise routines and diets

Final thoughts

This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many more AI tools that are already just part of our lives without us even realising it.

As always when looking into using AI tools, it's important that you do your homework and research so that the tools you're using meet your values and standards and are in line with what, how and where you want your data used.

Relevant resources

• What is artificial intelligence?

• Responsible AI: Why ethics matter in artificial intelligence

• How small businesses can leverage AI