A lot has been written about using Artificial Intelligence for geospatial tasks, but what does AI mean at a more fundamental level for the future of GIS? Will Cadell, founder and CEO of Sparkgeo explores this topic in a recent article, “AI ate my GIS”, and emphasizes quality data product and AI-ready building stones as potential ways to engage with shifting market forces.
The article contains many interesting observations and quotable lines (no spoilers!). And it asks poignant questions to the GIS industry:
My point is about (…) the disruption that occurs when an underserved market encounters a low-cost product. That underserved market could be the deep geospatial horizontal referred to above, and the low-cost product could be prompt-driven AI.
The question here, then, is whether this new geospatial market will be served by traditional geospatial technology companies or by others. If we remember, Google Maps was created by a web search company, not a mapping company.