Intel CEO Brian Krzanich told his Keynote audience at CES that data has now become the foundation of innovation. Data started as a static tool used by companies to see trends and process information, but it has now reached the point where it is the critical element that is driving technology and is revolutionizing all aspects of society.

Below is an excerpt of Krzanich’s talk about data’s amazing impact on our world.

Data is Driving the Technology Revolution

Data is the unseen driving force behind the next wave of the technology revolution. In fact I think it is even bigger. Data is going to introduce social and economic changes that we only see perhaps once or twice in a century.

In the 19th Century we saw this change with the combustion engine. That led to the rise of the automobile which ushered in the modern transportation system of trains, cars and planes. Just 50 years ago we saw another inflection point with the creation of the integrated circuit and the rise of the semiconductor industry. This is the story of Moore’s Law which has shaped every aspect of modern technology. We need to think about data changing our society in the same way.

It is Time to Rethink the Importance of Data

Data will redefine how we experience life in our work, at home, in school, and even how we enjoy sports and entertainment. It’s going to make possible experiences that know one has even started to imagine. I think the time has come for us to entirely think about the importance of data differently. The breakthrough came from computing power. Computing has become so fast and so powerful that we can now generate and capture information capable of prediction, decision making, recognition, and even thinking.

What Do We Mean by Data?

Let’s start with some basics. Almost everything associated with technology generates data. Any device with a plug, every email, every podcast, every picture you post on Instagram, and even the blog you are writing about this Keynote tonight. All of it creates and shares an incredible amount of data, and it’s all connected. Today, the cloud is filled with billions of bytes of data, going from our devices to the data center and back again. We’ve created literally a flood of data.

That’s really staggering, by 2020 the average person will generate one and a half gigabytes of data a day, which is about 2 times what a person creates today! That’s small in comparison to an autonomous car which will generate about 4 terabytes of data per day, or 2,500 times the data a person will generate. A connected airplane will generate about 40 terabytes a day and a smart factory will generate 1 petabyte of data per day. That’s the equivalent of 700 thousand people.

That data is moving all around us at an unimaginable speed. That speed allows the device in your hand to make decisions in an instant, and this is a big shift in how edge devices provide value.

All Technology Starts with Data

There was a time when data was something that was stored and processed and very carefully shared. Some businesses would analyze that data and that led to some pretty interesting insights, but basically data was a static commodity. All that has shifted in just the last few years. Today, data is the foundation of innovation.

Almost everything you will see here at CES, virtual reality, smart cities, autonomous driving, and above all artificial intelligence, all start with data. People have been writing about artificial intelligence since the 1950’s, but what we are seeing emerge today is a rush of breakthroughs using data and AI. This includes facial recognition, devices controlled by voice commands, robots, autonomous vehicles, and even art itself.

Art and space are just two examples of how data is going to reshape our world. Devices operated by voice command, visual intelligence and precision medicine… I spent my whole life watching technology dramatically leap forward, and the advances with data and AI we’ll see in the coming years will dwarf all of that.

If you are impressed in what you see today, well stay tuned. We are still discovering new ways to apply the power of artificial intelligence and data and these discoveries will impact almost every sector and that is what is meant to reimagine data.

Watch Intel CEO Brian Krzanich’s full CES keynote below: