Investing in AI solutions is crucial for any company wishing to improve processes and outcomes and aiming for long-term success. In this article, we want to introduce PlugAIn, the AI solution developed by Revelis, capable of offering numerous benefits to businesses.
Urban areas will be called upon, in the near future, to address numerous challenges to provide well-being and sustainability to citizens. On the other hand, from the industries’ perspective, especially those in the manufacturing sector, it is crucial to make decisions that ensure a competitive advantage in an increasingly dynamic context where innovation and training are the key factors for long-term success.
In this context, artificial intelligence is rapidly emerging as a transformative force for businesses in every sector, offering a wide range of benefits that can revolutionize operations, improve efficiency, and stimulate innovation.
The Benefits of AI Solutions for Business
One of the main advantages that AI solutions bring to business is process automation. Thanks to the capabilities of modern tools for data analysis and Business Process Management, companies can automate a series of repetitive and tedious tasks, freeing up human resources to focus on high-value activities.
Process automation brings the following advantages:
- Increased operational efficiency.
- Cost reduction.
- Acceleration of product and service delivery times.
Furthermore, artificial intelligence, with sophisticated algorithms capable of processing enormous amounts of data in real-time, allows companies to obtain:
- In-depth insights into market trends.
- Customer behavior data.
- Business performance data.
This capability enables:
- Improvement in predicting customer needs and anticipating market trends.
- The ability to quickly identify growth opportunities and mitigate potential risks.
Additionally, AI solutions can enhance the customer experience through service personalization and optimization. Through predictive analysis and customer segmentation, companies can offer personalized and tailored experiences that meet each customer’s specific needs.
As a result:
- Increased customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.
- Generation of new cross-selling and upselling opportunities.
Moreover, AI solutions make it possible to improve the accuracy and effectiveness of business operations through predictive maintenance and supply chain management. By using intelligent sensors and forecasting algorithms, companies can reduce machine downtime and maintenance costs by proactively identifying potential failures and inefficiencies in equipment and production processes.
Furthermore, AI solutions can optimize supply chain management by predicting customer demand, optimizing inventories, and improving production and distribution planning.
Another significant advantage of AI solutions is their ability to enhance corporate security and regulatory compliance.
Through data analysis and anomaly detection, companies can identify potential cybersecurity threats and prevent data breaches. It’s also possible to automate monitoring and regulatory compliance, ensuring that companies meet regulatory requirements and minimize the risk of sanctions and fines.
Finally, artificial intelligence can stimulate innovation and growth by creating new products and services. Thanks to the ability to analyze large amounts of data and identify hidden patterns and trends, AI solutions can inspire the creation of innovative solutions that meet the emerging needs of customers and open up new markets and business opportunities.
Usage of AI Solutions in Italy: the scenario
Considering all the potential regarding the use of AI solutions, it is now pertinent to ask what the situation is in Italy regarding the use of such solutions.
As reported by Statista, concerning the use of AI solutions for Public Administration, artificial intelligence has not yet played a significant role in the digital transformation of local Italian public administration institutions. In fact, as shown in the graph below:
- Over 72% of respondents stated that the adoption of artificial intelligence is not advanced at all in their organization.
- Only about 7% of respondents stated that they consider the progress in adopting AI to be sufficient or higher.
Image Source: Statista
Regarding the main challenges to address in implementing artificial intelligence initiatives in businesses in 2023, these can be attributed, according to data collected by Statista, to the following factors:
- Challenges in measuring and demonstrating the business value of AI solutions.
- Lack of technological infrastructure to support AI.
- Availability of qualified AI talent.
- Lack of clean data.
- Lack of trust in AI-based decisions.
- Algorithm/model errors.
- Inability to find the right data.
- Legal concerns, risks, or compliance issues.
PlugAIn: The AI Solution for the Manufacturing Sector, Smart Cities, and Multi-Utilities
Revelis has developed PlugAIn, a platform that offers AI solutions for the manufacturing sector, smart cities, and multi-utilities.
PlugAIn is a platform that enables IoT Intelligence applications and can be used in various operational contexts, including:
- Predictive maintenance: allowing timely intervention on components to minimize plant downtime and maximize the effectiveness of interventions, reducing costs.
- Monitoring of water or energy consumption: avoiding waste related to water losses due to network failures or water theft.
- Quality control of industrial production: through automatic agents capable of visually analyzing objects with expanded quality control.
- Automatic scheduling of work shifts: facilitating the formulation of work shifts in manufacturing and logistics sectors where the organization of such shifts depends on multiple factors.
These applications make this solution developed by Revelis ideal especially for the manufacturing sector, smart cities, and multi-utilities.
PlugAIn: Use Case Examples
Some of the application cases where PlugAIn has been employed include:
- Business Process Management
- Smart city
- Industry 4.0
In the case of Business Process Management, PlugAIn was used for monitoring production processes in a food industry company, where monitoring is crucial. In this application context, PlugAIn enables process management in automatic or semi-automatic mode.
Automatic management allows workers to never need to access the platform, while semi-automatic management allows workers to perform all necessary operations such as batch insertion, displaying data such as weight or, in the specific case, product humidity at a later time.
In this use case, an estimation process was also implemented in the platform whereby PlugAIn provides suggestions on estimated production (data that users are free to manually modify if necessary).
Regarding the IoT smart city aspect, the platform was employed for the Hydrocontrol project, for which Revelis was selected by the Pitagora Consortium, the managing entity of the ICT Hub of the Calabria Region, and developed for optimized management of water consumption related to a street in Catanzaro.
Initially, the platform included: water consumption monitoring, detection of leaks and/or water theft, and predictive maintenance of water networks thanks to:
- an IoT sensor network to be installed at water utilities;
- a cloud-based platform for storage and Big Data processing.
Today, however, thanks to the implementation of further advancements, it also enables easy device connectivity and verticalization development for clients.
As for Industry 4.0, PlugAIn was used in a textile industry company where efficiency issues were addressed through predictive maintenance, an AI solution through which, in the specific use case, it is possible to predict the time before the next breakage of the loom’s thread. In this application case, it was therefore possible to avoid machine downtime for the entire loom and thus reduce inefficiencies in terms of resources and costs, making the client even more competitive in the market.
Conclusions
In conclusion, AI solutions offer a wide range of benefits that can radically transform business operations, improve efficiency, foster innovation, and generate added value for customers. In this context, the PlugAIn platform is capable of bringing significant advantages, as we have seen, particularly in the manufacturing sector, smart cities, and multi-utilities.
However, to fully harness the potential of AI solutions, it is necessary for companies to invest in advanced skills and infrastructure, collaborating with experienced partners and suppliers such as the AI Specialists at Revelis, and choosing to adopt an organizational culture oriented toward innovation and continuous experimentation.
On these fronts, the situation in Italy is positive; investments over the past three years have strongly favored artificial intelligence since the beginning of 2023, and the majority of management is eager to utilize AI solutions for a variety of purposes.
