I wrote this column because I felt the need to offer one clear, direct and understandable explanatione of what artificial intelligence (AI) really is for someone with no technical knowledge. Over the last few months, I have had several conversations with people who, despite living with AI every day, continue to believe that it is something distant, complex, reserved for experts. But as I thought about it, I noticed something revealing: what we call “artificial intelligence” is no longer what it was. In its early days, AI was much more artificially The intelligent And today the balance has turned: the “intelligence” part began to gain weight, relevance and the ability to change everyday life.
CWhen we talk about AI, we almost always imagine the obvious: A Chatbot Whoever answers an app that writesA Assistant writing emails. ANDThis is his visible face, but it only represents 1% of the story.
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In real life, AI has become so commonplace, so silent, and so integrated into what we do that we often don’t even notice it. We don’t rely on it. It’s there, in the background, anticipating problems, reconfiguring systems, improving experiences and making decisions without us lifting a finger.
The irony is simple: while many say “I don’t use AI”They are already using AI to help them, protect them or make their lives easier. Every time we go into home banking at the end of the month and everything works, ocIf a hot sale doesn’t fail, an AI was probably working silently.
Today, Advanced models monitor huge infrastructures: Traffic, demand, latency, security threats. If something goes out of pattern, a server becomes overloaded, an app behaves differently, an unexpected spike occurs, the AI detects it, predicts the impact and acts: redirects loads, restarts processes, allocates resources.
The impressive thing is not what it solves, but what it avoids: Most problems never occur. And if “nothing happens,” it’s because the AI did its job.
Something similar happens when we receive an email saying “Your claim has been resolved”: often there is no one on the other side. And when he bank sends you the classic warning: “Do you recognize this purchase?” AI is probably behind the models The You will learn about our habits, areas, quantities and schedules and detect any anomaly.
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It’s not magic. This is no coincidence. It is an AI that works 24/7 to a degree that would not be possible for a human.
An example of the massive use of AI that most people are not aware of
One of the oldest and at the same time most invisible examples can be found in caEmail: spam filter. What was once a set of simple rules is now pure AI, models that analyze language, frequency, reputation and many other signals to decide whether a message goes into your main inbox or into spam. It’s probably the world’s most extensive use of AI… and yet almost no one recognizes it.
The same thing happens with that Recommendation systems when purchasing a product. You’ve been looking for sneakers and they suggest socks, cleaning supplies, or a nearby gym; You have booked a hotel and flights, transfers and activities are displayed; They have seen one series and they recommend others. NO It’s coincidence, it’s not “passive listening” but it’s AI that recognizes collective patterns that a human would never see.
Open your phone’s camera: portrait mode, night mode, face detection, stabilization, HDR, color correction. This is all AI Works on every pixel in real time.
And when you open this Map app: route calculation, traffic forecast, arrival estimate, accident detection. Anytime you’re out and about in the city, there’s probably some AI behind it.
And yet, perhaps because of the inertia of language, out of habit, out of misperception, many people continue to think that “they don’t use AI.”
The public debate usually moves between extremes: either AI replaces everything, or it is useless. The reality is much simpler and much deeper, because AI is already our silent assistant of modern life, orchestrating processes, making operational decisions, reducing friction and optimizing from the ground up.
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He The real challenge is not knowing whether AI will be part of our lives; that’s it. He Challenge will define cHow we want to live with it: what we delegate, what we monitor, where we include human participation and where we don’t.
While so much, AI will continue to operate in the background, without making noise, without asking for attention. It will just be there, working, learning, optimizing.
Next time someone says: “I don’t use artificial intelligence”Maybe it’s worth remembering: AI is already part of everyone’s life, even those who think it isn’t.
* Area VP LATAM, BMC Helix
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