While we’re all waiting to the day flying cars, hoverboards, and robots arrive to do our bidding, AI is leaping ahead in unexpected and rather more practical ways.

Here’s a handy one: Salesforce is betting on machine learning to help summarise and streamline professional communication.

Program and learn

In 2017, the average person will spend over 12 hours a day consuming some form of media, and that figure will continue to rise.

Keeping up with this torrent of exponentially increasing info is a challenge, both for people and businesses.

Happily, a paper published by the clever clogs at Salesforce MetaMind reveals that advances in AI could provide new ways to condense emails and texts, making businesses more productive.

Natural language

Salesforce researchers have recently made two breakthroughs in natural language text summaries, a notoriously difficult filed. Salesforce reckons its advances could help condense complex documents into a few sentences.

Besides making it easier to get through that monster article in The New Yorker, the breakthroughs could help sales reps quickly recap email threads and identify potential leads.

This could also lead to rapid training for new recruits, while giving reps more time to build relationships with customers.

While the science is still being tweaked, it’s an indication of how tech is continuing to change the workplace. Now if Salesforce could just start work on flying cars.

Do you use AI in your workplace? Let us know in the Comments.