Top Stories: Digital Digest of Today's News Headlines
In the past week, artificial intelligence (AI) applications have continued to evolve and diversify, making significant strides across various sectors. Here's a roundup of some of the most notable developments.
**Manufacturing**
AI adoption in manufacturing has seen a substantial increase, with generative AI usage jumping from 55% to 75% in 2023-2024. Collaborative AI bots, or "cobots" and "copilots," are preferred by 53% of manufacturing specialists over fully autonomous systems. Key AI applications include generative design, quality assurance, predictive maintenance, and demand forecasting. Investment focuses heavily on supply chain management and big data analytics. However, many manufacturers remain uncertain about integrating AI with existing ERP systems.
**Retail and Consumer Products**
Retailers have reported a 15% increase in conversion rates using AI chatbots during significant sales events like Black Friday. AI-powered speech analytics tools, such as Spokn AI, enhance contact center operations by analysing customer sentiment and improving experiences. The retail sector is expected to extensively adopt AI solutions through 2025 and beyond.
**Pharmaceuticals and Scientific R&D**
AI is revolutionising research and development processes in pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and materials. Leading pharmaceutical companies use AI for omics-based target identification, molecular design, in silico screening, and predicting pharmacokinetics/dynamics. These AI applications reduce drug discovery costs and improve the probability of clinical trial success, potentially transforming timelines and outcomes.
**Innovation and Product Development**
AI investments correlate strongly with increased product innovation—firms report more trademarks and product patents. AI enables both incremental improvements and breakthrough innovations, driving faster experimentation and shortening product development cycles across industries.
**Broader Market and Infrastructure Developments**
The global AI market is projected to expand dramatically, from $189 billion in 2023 to $4.8 trillion by 2033. Initiatives like AI venture accelerators, such as Rice University's collaboration with Google, help translate research into commercial AI solutions. Open-source AI models, like Alibaba’s Qwen2, enable cost-efficient, multilingual AI agents deployable in low-resource environments, expanding access to AI tools for startups and developers.
**Specific Advancements**
- Nextdoor, a U.S.-based social networking website for neighbourhoods, has launched an AI-powered assistant that can help users avoid unkind posts on the platform. - LexisNexis, a U.S.-based legal technology provider, has launched a generative AI tool that can assist with legal inquiries. - Researchers at Cedars-Sinai have created a deep learning model that predicts a patient's risk of experiencing an adverse cardiac event. - Sam's Club, a U.S.-based retail warehouse chain, has introduced a robot chef to cook burgers at a location in Fayetteville, Arkansas. - Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have created an AI system that can decode speech from brain activity based on data from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). - The Louisville Office of Resilience and Community Services has launched a dashboard to track municipal program data.
These advancements illustrate AI's expanding and deepening impact across sectors, enhancing productivity, innovation, and customer engagement globally.
[1] https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-analytics/our-insights/the-future-of-ai-in-manufacturing [2] https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01159-7 [3] https://www.alibabacloud.com/blog/qwen2-open-source-multilingual-ai-model-now-available-on-github_596413 [4] https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/pharmaceuticals-and-biotechnology/our-insights/how-ai-is-transforming-pharmaceutical-and-scientific-research-and-development
- In the manufacturing sector, the integration of AI with existing ERP systems remains uncertain for many, despite significant progress in generative AI usage and the preference for collaborative AI bots over fully autonomous systems.
- The pharmaceutical industry is seeing a transformation through AI in research and development, with applications like omics-based target identification, molecular design, in silico screening, and predicting pharmacokinetics/dynamics leading to reduced costs and increased odds of clinical trial success.
- AI is not only revolutionizing technology-driven industries but also contributing to health and wellness, as shown by the development of a deep learning model at Cedars-Sinai that predicts a patient's risk of experiencing an adverse cardiac event, potentially improving medical-condition outcomes.
- The retail sector is adopting AI solutions extensively, with AI-powered chatbots improving conversion rates during significant sales events, and AI-powered speech analytics tools enhancing customer sentiment analysis and experience in contact centers.
- The global AI market is projected to expand dramatically, reaching $4.8 trillion by 2033, while initiatives like AI venture accelerators, such as Rice University's collaboration with Google, help translate AI research into commercial solutions, fostering innovation in technology and science.
