Dirty secret: "The customers who bought also bought" algorithm doesn't require ML/AI.

You can accomplish that with relational algebra on a precomputed data warehouse job and only for products with strong correlation. The intelligence of the customers is enough agency to instil a semblance of intelligence in the data.

Yes, this is the straightforward ‘collaborative filtering’ algorithm. I suppose the line between ‘algorithm’ and AI/ML is not well defined though. At what point does a technique become ‘AI’? I don’t know a good answer.

As an utterly cynical layperson, algorithm means directly querying data. AI means feeding systems with training data and sprinkling them with magic obfuscation dust.

I wonder if the dirty secret for lots of stuff is: "They aren't using AI anywhere"

Well, for problems that are simply looking for a ranked relationship if you have human input it could be used to train a ML that attempts to look for similar correlations...or you could just use your human mechanical turks that are already informing you. ML problems that are good are the ones not trying to approximate reality like CWBAB.

I'm doubtful we'll see an ai that makes a serious jump without directly interacting with the world we live in. Under that measure cars might be the closest since you learn to interact with the bounds of where it can and can't go is similar to a toddler learning to crawl.