It is no secret that artificial intelligence is one of the hottest tech trends of today, but there is a wide range of research fields that falls under the umbrella of AI. According to data from Venture Scanner, machine learning research is the clear leader in the industry by a wide margin, despite the fact that it is also one of the newest avenues of AI research.

Machine learning is essentially the ability for a computer program to learn from new data and improve its functionality over time. For example, Google’s AlphaGo AI learned how to play Go by evaluating millions of moves from real games, and as it continues to play more matches, it is constantly getting better and better. This allowed AlphaGo to defeat one of the top Go players in the world earlier this year, a landmark feat in the field of AI research.

So why exactly does machine learning make up such a significant portion of the AI industry?

“The glib answer is that machine learning is the branch of AI that’s commercially successful, and the rest are mostly still mostly the focus of research,” explained Wikibon analyst and machine learning expert George Gilbert. “In reality, there’s more nuance to it. Machine learning has become synonymous with predictive analytics, and there are many potential points of integration between predictive analytics and existing applications. Predictive analytics can just make them better.”

Predictive analytics are used today in everything from anticipating stock market shifts to gauging staffing needs for call centers, and as machine learning continues to improve, these tools will become more and more powerful.

While machine learning may be the most popular field of AI research today, Gilbert noted that other uses for AI are growing as well and have their own value.

“Natural language processing (NLP), computer vision, and speech are all useful and experiencing growing adoption, but they are not yet ‘in the tornado,'” Gilbert said. “NLP and speech recognition seem to be experiencing greatest adoption in mobile devices through services like Siri, Cortana, Google’s app, and Amazon’s Alexa. They will likely become more pervasive over time.”

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