A system can learn from data, identify patterns and take decisions without any human intervention – the core of machine learning (ML) revolves around this idea. ML is a subset of artificial intelligence (AI) and has evolved multiple folds since its origin in the 1950s. Half a century ago, ML was used for pattern recognition and was theorized to help computers learn without being programmed to perform specific tasks. However, in the present day, ML involves the processing of large amounts of data (even quantum data) and is applied to algorithms to help systems recognize objects (even separate trash in recycling), predict when a machine will fail or need maintenance, or even drive a car without human intervention.
In the fourth industrial revolution, AI will be the predominant technology, and its subsets ML and deep learning will be driving the change. ML has found its application in multiple disciplines, and businesses can use large data to better understand consumers’ behavior, at large.
AI has always been a boon in the field of agriculture. As climate change continues to affect farming globally, genome analysis with the help of ML can aid farmers in cultivating crops that are capable of adapting to changes. Companies like Avalo are creating better versions of major crops, making them more resistant to heat, insects, drought or flooding apart from increasing yields and profits for farmers. The company builds a model for simulating the effects of climate change on a plant’s genome, helping plants to evolve in a shorter period.
Further, ML is being used to read and predict human behavior. Deep learning a subset of ML and it enables machines to think and respond just like humans. ML uses a number of datasets on which the deep learning models are trained to give more accurate and reliable results. Recently, Brains4Cars developed a deep learning system that can easily anticipate a driver behavior 3.5 seconds before its occurrence. Even in retail, ML is offering market intelligence and enabling companies to deliver a more personalized customer experience and convert sales. This helps in optimizing manufacturing processes and strengthening logistics.
Lastly, we should mention AI’s application in the financial industry. ML platforms are helping banks and insurance companies gather data about their customers before lending. ML-aided predictive risk management tools help in making better lending decisions, identifying fraudulent transactions, predicting creditworthiness, detecting fraud in insurance claims and more.
The explosion of data, growth in cloud computing, and emerging theories like quantum computing open up myriad opportunities for ML. In fact, the global ML market size climbed to to $11.3 billion in 2020, per a Fortune Business Insights report. The report also highlights that the coronavirus pandemic gave a positive shock to ML services and solutions and the market is projected to rise from $15.50 billion in 2021 to $152.24 billion in 2028, at a CAGR of 38.6%.
Given such positives, we have shortlisted five companies that deal in ML and are poised to grow.
Microsoft Corporation MSFT develops, licenses, and supports software, services, devices, and solutions. Its Azure Machine Learning is a cloud service for accelerating and managing the ML project lifecycle, and help in boosting productivity. The company’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 8% compared with the Zacks Computer – Software industry’s projected earnings growth of 2.5%.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for this company’s current-year earnings has been revised 3.6% upward over the past 60 days.Microsoft sportsa Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
NVIDIA Corporation NVDA operates as a visual computing company. It provides a suite of ML and analytics software libraries to accelerate end-to-end data science pipelines entirely on GPUs. This Zacks Rank #2 company’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 68% compared with the Zacks Semiconductor – General industry’s projected earnings growth of 27%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for this company’s current-year earnings has been revised 6.1% upward over the past 60 days.
Alphabet Inc. GOOGL provides online advertising services and offers innovative ML products and services via its cloud platform. Google’s AutoML is used to train high-quality custom ML models with minimal effort and ML expertise. The company’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 73.8% compared with the Zacks Internet – Services industry’s projected earnings growth of 11.8%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for this company’s current-year earnings has been revised 14.3% upward over the past 60 days.Google carriesa Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Accenture plc ACN is a Zacks Rank #3 company and combines deep learning and analytics expertise to enable digital transformation of organizations. The company has collaborated with Intel and Sulubaaï Environmental Foundation, for Project Corail, an AI-powered platform that monitors and analyzes the resiliency of coral reefs.
The company that belongs to the Zacks Consulting Services industry has a projected earnings growth of 17.8% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for this company’s current-year earnings has been revised 0.6% upward over the past 60 days.
Snowflake Inc. SNOW provides cloud-based data platform that offers ML tools. It provides cloud data analytics capabilities for data scientists and business analysts. This Zacks Rank #3 company’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 68.7% against the Zacks Internet – Software industry’s projected earnings decline of 0.2%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for this company’s current-year earnings has been revised 6.6% upward over the past 90 days.
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