The AI landscape is continually changing, with businesses eager to make use of the latest iterations of the technology to boost their digital prowess.
Some of the benefits that AI can afford an organisation include optimised workflows, improved productivity, advanced insights into data and quicker outcomes. AI innovation is increasingly beneficial, as it stands to enhance human creativity and transform a broad range of sectors for competitive advantage.
With this in mind, AI Magazine considers some of the leading AI innovations and the companies using them to boost their digital transformation efforts.
10. Customer experience
Company: Walmart
AI in retail is fast-becoming popular with various businesses looking to boost their customer service capabilities. From chatbots to virtual assistants, these cutting-edge technologies allow businesses to provide fast and personalised service at scale.
In particular, Walmart is currently using AI to enhance customer experiences through personalised recommendations and inventory management. The technology has led to a 10% increase in sales in certain product categories. Walmart even has a partnership with Microsoft to improve the digital shopping experience by building generative AI (Gen AI) into its search function.
9. Education and learning
Company: Pearson
AI-powered educational technology encompasses tools for teachers, students and administrators alike. The technology can be used for personalised learning, something that educational publisher Pearson is currently dedicated to. The organisation’s AI-driven educational platforms adapt learning materials to individual student needs, a strategy that has resulted in a 25% improvement in student engagement and performance.
The technology has enabled the company to provide learning experiences that are more tailored to the individual user or student.
8. Supply Chain Management
Company: Alibaba
AI can accurately predict demand by analysing data from various sources, in addition to using advanced algorithms to generate forecasts, optimising inventory levels, reducing waste and increasing customer satisfaction.
For Alibaba, the company employs AI to optimise its supply chain logistics, improving delivery times as a result through predictive analytics and real-time tracking. Harnessing this technology also enables the company to improve its operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.
7. Predictive Maintenance
Company: Siemens
Predictive maintenance is fast-becoming an increasingly important part of key industries as, with the power of AI, businesses are able to gain a clearer picture than ever before. According to Deloitte, predictive maintenance is able to increase enterprise productivity by 25%, reduce breakdowns by 70% and lower maintenance costs by 25%.
Siemens uses AI for predictive maintenance in its manufacturing operations, which contributes to a significant reduction in unplanned downtime. This ultimately supports employees to focus on more complex tasks. Likewise, by analysing equipment data, the system is able to predict failures before they occur, saving significant costs as a result.
6. AI-Enhanced Cybersecurity
Company: IBM
Helping to identify vulnerabilities across the cyber threat landscape, AI can be harnessed to defend against cybercriminals and threat activities such as malware. Although hotly debated, AI-powered risk analysis can produce incident summaries for high-fidelity alerts and automate incident responses. AI is able to integrate into an existing system and monitor it for potential threats, operating 24/7 to thwart any attempts.
With the goal of reducing incident response times, IBM utilises its Watson for Cyber Security platform, alongside its other security solutions, to analyse vast amounts of security data. This technology ultimately aims to help organisations identify and mitigate cyber threats more effectively.
5. Agriculture
Company: Bayer
AI has a range of applications within the agriculture sector, including making weather predictions, sustainability monitoring and using data in connection with satellite and drone photography. In fact, Forbes even predicted in 2024 that The AI in Agriculture Market is projected to grow from US$1.7bn in 2023 to US$4.7bn by 2028.
Bayer seeks to transform health and nutrition by harnessing cutting-edge AI to catalyse faster product development and improve the way it manufactures and delivers products to its customers. Its AI-driven platform, Climate FieldView, is designed to help farmers optimise crop yields by analysing weather patterns and soil data. The technology has led to yield increases and significant cost savings for farmers.
4. Autonomous Vehicles
Company: Tesla
The EV market is continually turning to AI in order to boost its sales, with autonomous vehicles (AVs) seeking to cement themselves as the future of cars. Through AI, AVs can interpret information that helps them perceive their surroundings, including recognising obstacles, traffic signals and navigating complex environments.
One such example of a company harnessing AI is Tesla, with the company’s self-driving technology using AI to navigate complex driving environments. As a result, the system has improved safety by reducing accident rates by roughly 30% compared to conventional driving.
3. Financial Services
Company: JPMorgan Chase
Within the financial services landscape, AI has been posited as a solution to issues of security and optimisation of services. Its ability to protect against fraud, in addition to processing documents, has led the technology to become a valuable tool within the global financial landscape.
As Monica Hovsepian tells our sister publication FinTech Magazine: “AI is significantly transforming the financial services landscape by automating processes, enhancing customer experiences and improving decision-making.”
For instance, JPMorgan Chase uses AI for fraud detection, in addition to analysing transaction patterns to identify anomalies in real-time. Using this technology has led to a reduction in false positives and enables the bank to focus its resources on genuine threats.
2. AI-Powered Drug Discovery
Company: Pfizer
AI can be used within the healthcare sector to help researchers analyse large amounts of data and generate insights that can speed up the drug discovery process.
Pfizer makes use of AI to streamline drug discovery and significantly reduce the time it takes to identify viable drug candidates. By leveraging machine learning algorithms, Pfizer has accelerated its research timelines and is working towards achieving an even faster development process for some drugs. In addition, the company has appointed an AI Chief, Berta Rodriguez-Hervas, to better implement AI solutions within the organisation.
1. Generative AI
Company: Microsoft
Often hailed as an AI revolution, Gen AI is a type of AI that is capable of generating text, images, videos or other data using generative models. Often created in response to prompts, the technology is often developed to handle tasks that are unique to an individual business.
Tech giant Microsoft is a key example of a company that has integrated Gen AI into its suite of products, including Microsoft Copilot, which assists users in creating documents, presentations and emails. The tool helps to improve productivity for users and allows them to focus on tasks that are at a higher level.
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