AI Gives Outdated Industries a Makeover From farming methods to industrial facilities, AI is reshaping the business world.
By Farhana Rahman Edited by Amanda Breen
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
As a marketer who also dabbles in social media, I am no stranger to the backlash typically associated with AI technology. While it offers incredible potential, many feel AI is out to replace people and take their jobs, but that is far from the truth. AI is here to help us do our jobs better, and let's not forget that it also creates new jobs within the tech sector. Artificial intelligence exists to work with human intelligence to achieve preferred outcomes more efficiently.
You don't need me to tell you about how AI has disrupted industries such as ecommerce and customer service — that's obvious, and there are a couple thousand articles that go into those details. What I would like to shine light on is how AI is breathing new life into niche industries that are typically overlooked.
AI revives industrial facilities
One of the many strengths of AI, which is often synonymous with machine learning, lies in its ability to automate and make predictions based on large data sets that are not humanly possible to analyze with pinpoint accuracy. One use case, for example, is to turn industrial machines into smart machines. Doing so rapidly increases business-value creation on all fronts, from manufacturing output, to labor productivity, to the utilization of the factory itself.
Related: Impact of Industrial Automation on the Manufacturing Sector
Heavy industrial equipment requires heavy maintenance; it requires a diligent pair of eyes to make sure everything is running properly. AI helps these manufacturing companies identify hidden patterns within the data it collects from equipment sensors and even predict what parts will fail next. This reduces downtime costs and eliminates the need for investing in additional expensive parts, as seen in the case of Razor Labs, an AI-industry leader that transforms industrial machines into smart machines. The company's neural networks utilize deep reinforcement learning for business-processes optimization. The company's product integrates with the machine's sensors remotely and can identify malfunctions and optimize manufacturing processes, achieving results of accuracy and understanding far beyond human intelligence.
AI transforms medical imaging
A revolution is brewing within the medical-imaging space as well. X-rays haven't changed much in the past 100 years. We may have digitized all the technology surrounding them, but we have yet to make monumental changes. The cathode ray tube still has to be superheated for an X-ray to work, and the heating and cooling makes the machines very expensive. Fortunately, the AI solution developed by Nanox has made a breakthrough in X-ray technology, allowing the cathode (which is a vacuum tube that produces images when its phosphorescent surface is struck by electron beams) to operate at room temperature. Moreover, the company introduced the digital x-ray, which is the first innovation in x-ray technology in the past 126 years. The development of a new breed of medical-imaging infrastructure that can be deployed en masse, coupled with a radiology-services cloud platform, provides preventive care solutions on a global scale.
Related: AI Innovations Continue to Revolutionize Healthcare
Agriculture is no longer old school
Agriculture may be one of the oldest industries, but our populations are growing at an exponential rate, and resources are becoming insufficient. The gap led to the creation of precision agriculture, a farming method based on measuring and responding to inter- and intra-field variability in crops in order to optimize returns or reduce inputs. And yes, AI makes it all possible. Precision agriculture is slated to grow to $43.4 billion by 2025. With AI, commercial farmers can have a complete multi-dimensional system that uses multiple sensors and measurement techniques to interact with farming processes to optimize all aspects of farming. This system can utilize artificial intelligence to yield healthier crops, control pests, monitor soil and predict weather in real time.
Related: AI: Changing the Face of Agriculture
It's amazing to see how AI is making its mark in the industries that seldom make it on the homepage of tech-news sites. We're witnessing the dawn of a new era, and AI is here to help us navigate it with greater efficiency across every vertical imaginable.
