2023-10-17 00:20:45
Artificial intelligence (AI) is capable of doing wonderful things. It also responds at breakneck speed to any remote user question, which allows a company’s productivity to be accelerated to unsuspected limits. In the short term, its use will allow companies listed in billions of euros to begin to emerge that may be controlled, exclusively, by one person. Or, at least, that’s what Sam Altman, the father of the well-known ChatGPT talking machine, hopes. But that’s tomorrow. Today, technology already has a lot to offer. So much so that, for some time now, it has been considered the great cornerstone of the fourth industrial revolution. The one in which machines are capable of altering and accelerating all of a company’s work: from product design to manufacturing and distribution.
«AI is a technology that has extraordinary potential to foster an industrial and economic revolution. Its application in the business sector not only allows us to understand what has happened and why, but also allows us to anticipate and predict what is going to happen. These attributes translate into formidable efficiency and productivity gains for companies,” says Carlos Martínez, global director of AI and big data solutions and services at Telefónica Tech.
Experts are clear: AI is ready to radically transform businesses of all types, regardless of their size and the sector to which they belong. Anything goes; retail, healthcare, banking, education or automotive, the entire industry. According to a recent McKinsey study, just the use of generative artificial intelligence, capable of answering user questions or creating images on demand, can inject between 2.4 and 4 trillion euros into the global economy. And if we talk about technology in general terms, the figure inflates to between 10.5 and 16.7 billion.
Although there is still a lot of room for growth, industry 4.0 is already a reality. As we say, artificial intelligence plays a leading role, but it receives the support of other emerging technologies that are expected to continue maturing in the near future. And a lot. This is the case of the Internet of Things – which affects all those devices capable of exchanging data thanks to a network connection –, robotics or cloud computing. Even virtual reality and augmented reality, those technologies that in the medium term will be capital for the consecration of that future virtual world called metaverse, but that already have their weight within the sector.
From cars to food
Perhaps the great virtue of artificial intelligence in the industrial environment is its ability for the business to have all the necessary information about a product before starting to produce it and then market it. “It makes it possible to exploit all the data generated in the factory, facilitating predictive maintenance, quality control and avoiding production stops,” says the global director of AI and big data solutions and services at Telefónica Tech.
For example, within a car factory, through the use of sensors and cameras, AI can find flaws in the paint of a vehicle or defects in some of its components before it is put on the market. This goes the same for the food industry, where the use of artificial intelligence can be even more decisive when it comes to inspecting the quality of the product and for the company to detect, for example, foreign bodies inside or elements that could harm health. of the consumer, such as mold. Or even for the health industry, both in the development of medicines in record time and when quickly analyzing what is the appropriate treatment for a patient; and, furthermore, in a personalized way.
Martínez also highlights that, thanks to this technology, the company can significantly reduce the use of raw materials and energy in the manufacturing process. For example, a factory that works with steel can use artificial intelligence to regulate the temperature of its ovens so as not to spend more than necessary. And what is, perhaps, more important, it allows you to avoid wasting water. A fairly common problem within the sector. «The digitalization of the water cycle, from its origin to its destination in the meters of homes and companies, allows optimizing the consumption of this very scarce resource, reducing leaks by up to 40% and operating costs by around 20%. and maintenance, thanks to massive data generation and advanced analysis with AI,” says the expert.
In addition, it is capable of providing relevant information about the situation in which the company finds itself and, in this way, help management in making relevant decisions. «Technology has a lot to offer in terms of predictive analysis. Thanks to the use of algorithms, it is much easier to know the consumption patterns of your customers and even set the prices that you can put on your products in order to achieve the expected economic results,” says Rafael Conde, business development director. digital for Europe from the technology company Softtek. This is all thanks to the ability of artificial intelligence to compare large amounts of market data in real time. For example, information about demand, competition or consumer economic conditions.
Room for improvement in SMEs
Today, 55% of companies use artificial intelligence in some way to optimize their business, according to a McKinsey report published last August. Specifically, more than double that of 2017. Despite the notable improvement, the firm points out that, currently, investment is somewhat stagnant. Not all companies are taking advantage of it.
“SMEs still have a lot of work to do to catch up,” says technology business analyst José Luis Casal. Indeed, according to the report ‘Artificial Intelligence Indicators in Spanish companies’, prepared by the Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence, only 7% of Spanish small and medium-sized companies use AI (6% on average in the EU). ). And this, despite the fact that AI already has a lot to offer all types of businesses. According to a study by the third-party business development company Hubspot, 64% of SMEs that invest in technology claim that the productivity of their employees increased significantly.
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