The 'Why' of Industrial AI

Industrial organizations worldwide face similar challenges: societies are aging, we face skilled worker shortages, supply chains are strained, and geopolitical conflict is ever present. All these issues require unprecedented and transformational solutions. But it is the existential threat of climate change that unites us all in industry and beyond. We are in a race to decarbonize, and with around 30 percent of the global greenhouse gas emissions coming from industry, we have a responsibility to do the right thing.

Using digital technologies and by harnessing the power of data, industrial companies are becoming more resource-efficient, more productive, and more sustainable. Yet, while there has been progress, enterprises of all sizes are nevertheless grappling with the dual transformation of digitalization and sustainability. Whereby the progress of one determines the progress of the other. Many find managing the pace, scale, and complexity of the transformative change required to meet net zero targets and mitigate environmental impacts to be extremely challenging.

Out of time? We need to do things differently

But time is running out. Or as Bill Gates put it in his book "How to Avoid a Climate Disaster": "We need to accomplish something gigantic we have never done before, much faster than we have ever done anything similar." So, urgency is essential but so is precision.

Think of it like the classic slot car game; digitalization is the accelerator, pushing the car – your business – faster on the track ahead. In the real world, this enables quicker production, market agility, and sustainable transformation. But at some point, you will hit a speed limit or fly off the ‘track’ at a curve. In business, progress stalls, strategy gets diluted, efficiency drops.

Here’s where AI comes into play: it acts like the elevated curves of the track keeping the vehicle grounded despite its speed. Every variable impacting that car – velocity, friction, timing – is under control. All data within the organization is harnessed to push the limits; mastering sharp turns in markets, resource management, and strategic vision without losing momentum.

AI can make the difference. It lets you go faster while ensuring you stay on the track. It helps turn a race to transform into a finely tuned victory lap.

AI: The hype and the hope

As consumers, AI based tools have become a feature in daily lives, from helping us write better copy to translating languages in real time. However, we have not yet reached the checkered flag in the AI race. There is great talk about AI’s gigantic potential, but it has yet to materialize in supporting tangible societal progress and large-scale development, significant GDP growth, or broad economic gains outside of a small group of tech players.

This raises the questions: is AI overhyped? And should we therefore deprioritize it and turn to other technological developments? The answer to the first is "yes" but to the second, "no"!

Undoubtedly there is a level of hype, but the technology behind this is real and will have a transformative impact.

In fact, industry has been steadily developing AI since the 1970s, making it reliable, secure, trustworthy, and suitable for industrial use. ‘Industrial AI’ now meets the requirements of the most demanding environments, enabling us to communicate with software, equipment, or machines in natural language, and helping us to design processes or even entire plants.

Crucially, Industrial AI is making a difference in the one area where we cannot afford any hype: sustainability. It enables us to leverage all the data that sits in our Digital Twins to do things faster in the virtual world first, improving efficiency and reducing waste so that we can do more with less.

As vital as hammer to nail – data as the foundation for Industrial AI

Industrial AI enables us to harness the one vital thing we have in abundance across industries: huge amounts of data. We've all heard it. Data is the new oil – but with far greater potential for sustainable good. AI gives us the means to transform that data into meaningful information, turning numbers into actionable insights.

In the future, we will be able to develop new Industrial AI solutions much faster thanks to the power of data. The next powerful models will be trained around industrial environments, with industrial data – Industrial Language Models. Today the modalities –the types of input and output data an AI system can interpret – are pictures, texts, video, or code. Soon these will also be 3D/CAD data, 2D/complex diagrams, time series, and industrial business data.

Accelerating through the curves – How do we drive AI forward?

The real value and potential benefit of AI lies in the industrial world – the backbone of our economies. This is highlighted by the recent Reuters Events report, "A New Pace of Change: Industrial AI x Sustainability," developed in collaboration with Siemens. Our opportunity is to extract the most useful parts of Industrial AI and to combine them with data and other technologies like Digital Twins or software-defined automation. It will be a supercharger for digital and sustainability transformation – and we have only scratched the surface.

Reaping the full benefits of Industrial AI will largely depend on whether we as industrial companies can master the complexities, fully adopt, and scale this technology, and jointly drive it forward. We also need to heavily invest in the enablers of AI – chips, compute, and people. Without the compute powered by chips and the AI experts creating the smart algorithms, AI will not reach its full potential.

Now is the time for boldness; to scale the development and application of industrial AI – both bottom-up and top-down – at speed.

The Why of AI – technology to do more with less

We always need to come back to the ‘Why of AI.’ We must not use AI – or indeed any other technology – just for the sake of it. Technology can only ever be our ‘How’ in making an impact and transforming the everyday, for everyone.

To win the race against climate change, we are going to need a “new pace of change” and every bit of creativity we can get. Not just human creativity. AI will enable us to do more with less in our industrial world. It’s our duty to make sure we use it for good.

This article was initially published as the foreword to the Reuters Events report "A New Pace of Change: Industrial AI x Sustainability." The complete report is available for download here. The paper is a true must-read for anyone who wants to understand the connections between the potential of Industrial AI and sustainability-focused operations and initiatives. Enjoy reading!