As the world embraces the wonderful possibilities of Artificial Intelligence, there are concerns of naysayers, asking mankind to tread the path with care.

As part of my consultancy engagements with a multitude of clients from different walks of life, across industry sectors and geographies, I have seen a mixed bag of responses within the teams.  Some feel threatened, some excited, as the change begins to take shape.  Yet many -a- times when we steer the discussion to how Artificial Intelligence is going to Augment rather than replace mankind, the discussions suddenly open up for ideas and acceptance.

As per What is, (https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/augmented-intelligence), Augmented intelligence is an alternative conceptualization of artificial intelligence that focuses on AI's assistive role, emphasizing the fact that cognitive technology is designed to enhance human intelligence rather than replace it. The choice of the word augmented, which means "to improve," reinforces the role human intelligence plays when using machine learning and deep learning algorithms to discover relationships and solve problems.

The neutral connotation of Augmented Intelligence is certainly opening up discussions, ideas and possibilities to adapt. It’s maybe an opportunity of an interesting study by linguists and researchers to see how the semantic change may happen and etymologists would someday study the evolution.

For now, we are seeing an immediate shift in acceptance. For AI to be mainstream, we may have to demystify it from the realms of Science Fiction and start associating it with Augmented Intelligence