More and more companies are implementing artificial intelligence in their production processes. A way of mechanizing processes and performing analysis of large amounts of fundamental data to understand the current economic paradigm and the emergence of large companies based on 'Big Data'. The partner and director of Brain VC, a venture capital fund specialized in implementing this technology in companies, comments on the current situation of artificial intelligence.

Is it too soon to know the limits of the influence that artificial intelligence can have in our day to day life?

It is important to demystify certain aspects. Artificial intelligence is already part of our day and the data that is being generated from this technology in industries is overwhelming.

It improves production performance by up to 20%, reduces maintenance costs by 30% and 63% of companies that have introduced artificial intelligence in their processes have reduced their operating costs by up to 44%.

There is no need to wait for a future, it is a present. Today, in industries it is already a reality: last year there were 100,000 million dollars invested in artificial intelligence, because you can see how it affects both the improvement of margins and the reduction of costs.

What applications does artificial intelligence have in areas beyond industry?

With the pandemic, the involvement of artificial intelligence in different sectors such as health or education increased. With regard to health, technology allows us to improve the treatment of personal data, with algorithms and 'machine learning' that allow us to obtain more precise information and apply it to each individual

Regarding education, Covid promoted the development of EdTech (educational technologies), which allowed the interaction between students and teachers to be maintained to a certain extent during confinement.

Does the lack of raw materials, especially microchips, affect the development of this technology?

Nothing is insensitive at the macroeconomic level, but in our case the results are very positive. When there are periods of construction or recession, companies concentrate efforts on aspects that can be improved. SEO (search engine optimization) technology, which relies on artificial intelligence, is one such example. It is increasingly in demand and therefore there are more volumes of investment

A distinction should be made between hardware and software, since the lack of components does not affect the development of programs as much. In addition, there are more and more companies related to artificial intelligence due to lower costs due to technological advances, and that is motivating their expansion

How does artificial intelligence affect our quality of life?

It is facilitating processes such as specific treatment for certain cancers, such as lung cancer, through genomic data. It is a palpable reality, although not always obvious. Also at an industrial level, I would highlight the improvement in the quality of the components that allow optimizing the productivity of the assembly lines.

Do you have plans to expand the investor base beyond Spain?

Most of our portfolio is developed and will continue to be in Spain. It is a very important point of investment, because we have good evaluations with respect to our neighboring countries by businessmen, investors and engineers of the highest quality. A brutal digital and technological capacity. We have a muscle and know-how. This, together with the European socioeconomic environment, places us as a wonderful focus for investment. It seems that the only thing we need is to believe them (laughs)

We also have plans to expand to other countries, but that does not mean that we continue to have our nucleus of investors between Spain and Latin America.