AI (Artificial Intelligence) plays a pivotal role in IoT (Internet of Things) as it can be applied to a myriad of smart connected products, such as lighting, cars, wearables, medical care, smartphones, and smart home sensing control devices. In 2019, market value of expert systems is expected to surge to around US$7.1 billion—the highest among all applications—followed by US$3.6 billion of the autonomous robot market, US$2.2 billion of intelligent virtual assistant market, US$1.6 billion of neural network market, and US$877 million of smart embedded system market, according to MIC (Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute), a Taipei-based IT research institute. "Between 2014 and 2019, intelligent virtual assistant market is expected to have a CAGR of 30.0%, followed by neural network's 26.4%, autonomous robot's 22.8%, smart embedded system's 15.8%, and expert system's 15.0%," says David Chen, MIC’s senior analyst with expertise in patent analytics.

Scale of Worldwide AI Application Market, 2013 – 2024

Source; MIC, January 2015

Market Value Share of AI Applications by Field, 2013 - 2024

Source: MIC, January 2015

“Between 2014 and 2019, intelligent virtual assistant market is expected to have a CAGR of 30.0%, followed by neural network's 26.4%, autonomous robot's 22.8%, smart embedded system's 15.8%, and expert system's 15.0%,” says Chen.

For vendors planning to enter the AI application market, it is important to keep an eye on the autonomous robots and intelligent virtual assistants markets. Particularly, they can start research and development on key components and software solutions, such as smart sensors, neuromorphic processors, smart image/voice recognition systems, cognitive computing OS, as well as cloud analysis and services.