Artificial Intelligence is a divisive technology. Its potential to improve the way we work and live is enormous, but people are also uneasy about the so-called "rise of the machines" and having everything they do tracked by software. Even those companies that are pioneering AI applications in the consumer space are at odds about its implications, most notably Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla's Elon Musk who recently revealed their opposing views on the technology.

In reality we all use AI in some form already, but as with any new technology we have let our guard down in cases where it has been commoditised. Take personal assistants like Siri or Google's image search. In the workplace, some people have started using HR chatbots for simple requests instead of taking up HR's time when we need something.

These are all examples of AI in action. What distinguishes AI from classic "if-then" computing is that today's powerful software allows companies to dynamically refine their decision-making based on experimentation and a wide range of data. In other words, AI is advanced number crunching done at a scale beyond human capability.