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View a PDF of VM's 2017 Summit.

NEW YORK—Artificial Intelligence (AI), arguably the most transformative force in business and health care today, took center stage at Vision Monday’s Global Leadership Summit, held here on March 29.

Nearly 400 senior level optical industry executives and eyecare practitioners came to the 11th annual VM Summit to learn how their businesses and practices can benefit from AI, and how to put AI to practical use. Throughout the day-long program, more than a dozen AI experts offered a penetrating look at how AI is rapidly affecting commerce and health care as well as social interactions.

Using examples such as self-driving cars, chatbots and predictive analytics, they described how machine learning, deep learning, artificial neural networks and other aspects of AI are powering executive decision making and bringing a new level of personalization to the customer and patient experience.

Supported by Premier sponsors Essilor, Europa Eyewear and VSP Global, Signature sponsors Alcon and Luxottica and Supporting sponsors ABS Smart Mirror, CareCredit and The Vision Council, the VM Summit got underway with Marc Ferrara, CEO, Information Services Division of Jobson Medical Information, who offered an overview of AI in popular culture. He said, “The AI discussion is all around us, every day. The more we explore AI, we realize it’s not A thing, it’s THE thing.”

Marge Axelrad, senior vice president and editorial director, Vision Monday, discussed how AI fits within the context of prior Summits and how it is “supercharging decision making” for today’s business leaders. She predicted the “overlap of humans and machines” would be a recurring theme of the Summit discussion.

Vision Monday’s editors offer a detailed overview of all the sessions from the 11th annual Summit.