Mostly thanks to pop culture, the fear of AI replacing humans has lingered in our collective consciousness for the longest time. But when you think about it, AI is merely a tool that ultimately needs to be operated on and modified by… you guessed it, actual humans.

Stripped from the ultra-complex and cutting-edge technologies within it, AI is just a machine like any other: A human invention designed to make life easier and productivity a lot more potent.

After all, there’s no AI to operate on if it weren’t for the humans who conceived it.

While it’s true that AI is, after all, just a string of 0s and 1s, it’s important to remember that AI is only as objective—and subjective—as the humans who made and improve upon it.

Remember, AI does not naturally occur in the wild. It requires data sets, parameters, and rules that are inherently biased since human input can never be 100% objective.

Additionally, implementing AI’s predictive analysis is usually not a one-layered phase. It entails years and years of tweaking and patches to integrate new user data and feedback, all with the goal of appropriately handling the dynamic and often-evolving human decision-making.

Unless used medicinally, the worst AI can do when abandoned and left un-updated is make obsolete and inaccurate decisions. Regardless of how many times we see it in movies, it can’t suddenly learn sentience one day and catalyze a robot uprising.

While it’s technically true that AI can make decisions on its own, it still requires human operation to feed it appropriate data, update its software, and eliminate potential biases to make its predictive decisions more targeted to the problem.

So yes, you can stop watching over your gadgets at night now.

You’d be surprised at how much of your day-to-day activities have some semblance of AI integrated into it. Social media platforms’ deep-learning AI is one of the most well-known among these, but judging from how it magically suggests just the right content for you consistently, you probably would have guessed that by now.

But seriously, AI integration can range from something as trifle as your phone predicting your sleep pattern or Amazon recommending items you’d most likely click on, to utilization so essential you can’t help but feel grateful for AI.

These include automobile features that proactively seek out potential road hazards, detecting fraud on your bank accounts, weather prediction for agriculture, and even making society more accessible for differently-abled folks.

If having AI omnipresent means I get to live in an all-inclusive, convenient, and efficient world, then count me right in.

Let’s be real, data privacy and security concerns are becoming more real by the minute. And who wouldn’t be worried? With systems designed to take your data and predict what you do next, how futile can our resistance be?

What if I tell you there are already AI systems specifically designed to let you thoroughly comprehend and review the content before clicking that “Agree” button on the Terms and Conditions?

Like any other powerful tool, AI can be used for the better or for underhanded tactics. Rather than shoot the messenger, why not hold accountable those people who design AI for adversity?

Although it’s easy to think that AI is a cutting-edge innovation fresh out of the oven, history would tell you otherwise. In fact, its origins can be traced back to World War II where machine learning’s foundations were laid.

It wasn’t until years later that hardware caught up with software and that AI, as we know it today, came to life.

So if your trust in this technology is stifled by the fact that it’s still on its alpha stage, think again. Decades upon decades of blood, sweat, and brain cells of countless people have been spent to get AI to the impressive stage where it’s at now.

If there’s anything the COVID-19 pandemic brought to light, it’s the importance of business continuity. Seriously, no business owner worth their salt would be caught without a contingency plan should operations go south. And this is where AI can really shine.

If one of technology’s ultimate goal is to eliminate scarcity, then AI complements this by letting humans make the most out of our limited resources. Optimized, ever-running operations? It’s every business owner’s utopia.

Sure, it may be the least of your priorities today, but the necessity for AI to stand out from the competition, while keeping your operations functioning rain or shine, is coming sooner rather than later.

The sooner we embrace AI, the better. This is because it supports the three pillars that modern-day businesses need to get ahead: data insight, automation, and engagement.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a well-established institution or a startup business run solely by a person, leveraging on AI’s capabilities to guide you through your business decisions, pursue leads, and streamline your processes bring about priceless benefits any business can only have more of.

We get it, AI is so vast you won’t even know where to begin diving in. And maybe that same barrier of unfamiliarity is what’s stopping most of us from fully appreciating the power of AI.

But chances are, you have already experienced the beauty of AI yourself, even without you noticing it—from ordering your food a minute faster, being literally saved by your car’s smart features, or maybe even getting instant customer support assistance.

AI is one of humanity’s greatest technological leaps. Countless industries have already made the leap of faith and are now reaping the benefits of AI, so what’s stopping you?