Having permeated every aspect of today’s human experience, artificial intelligence is spawning into an industry of its own.

But beyond the companies, research organizations and think tanks contributing to AI’s development, the technology needs to cut across a wider audience of ordinary enthusiasts to reach true saturation. Achieving that will require a universal semantics layer, according to Chris Lynch (pictured), executive chairman and chief executive officer of AtScale Inc..

“I think in the marketplace … AI plateaued about two years ago, because we ran out of smart people to sell it to,” he said. “It was smart people selling to smart people. That’s a small market — the big markets are dumb people like me selling to dumb buyers like me. What I mean by that is that you don’t have to be a data scientist [or] a rocket scientist — when mere mortals can leverage the technology [and] absorb the technology, that’s when it becomes a big market.”

Lynch spoke with theCUBE industry analyst Dave Vellante, during a CUBE Conversation from SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio in Boston. They discussed the modern role of AI and the importance of a universal semantic layer in data management.

Bridging the knowledge gap

In the early days of the personal computer, devices could only be operated by programmers that could instruct the system using code. But with the invention of graphical user interfaces, users across multiple backgrounds and disciplines became able to take full advantage of the computer’s endless possibilities.

A similar change will happen with AI through the aforementioned semantics layer. AI technology has plateaued among experts, so its power will only accelerate as it becomes more user-friendly and integrates with business processes, according to Lynch.

“I think we’re not even out of the first inning of the power of these technologies, and we’ll accelerate that power as we gain understanding of business context [and] decision context,” he explained. “And data provides that — the data that, an AtScale universal semantic layer for instance, would deliver. So, we definitely have a dog in the fight, and we want to see applied AI growing.”

AtScale bridges the gap between traditional business intelligence and AI. The universal semantic layer is crucial, as it allows data to be understood coherently and efficiently, enabling organizations to leverage AI effectively, according to Lynch.

AI is in its “hype phase,” where the industry is championing it as a panacea for every operational goal. But it’ll never achieve that without the single-minded focus to channel its capabilities directly toward clearly defined use cases “in a confined and controlled manner,” Lynch added.

“Everybody wants ROI, everybody wants lower churn and everybody wants customer growth [and] cost savings,” he explained. “Applying these technologies to that is how we’re going to gain traction and ubiquity. Gen AI is not going to solve all the problems. And today it’s in that hype cycle of it can do everything and anything, which means it won’t do anything unless we focus it on the basic use cases of today.”

Here’s the complete video interview, one of many CUBE Conversations from SiliconANGLE and theCUBE:

Photo: SiliconANGLE