By Technology
The Enterprise AI Platform Landscape: Where to Start (and Why It’s So Hard)
AI is out of the bag and advancing at an extraordinary pace; and though clear, measurable ROI remains elusive for many organizations, it would be unwise to “wait and see” about AI. At the same time, the AI market landscape is rapidly shifting. New tools, new versions of tools, new frameworks, and frequent acquisitions can reshape roadmaps almost overnight. Meanwhile, AI initiatives are often fragmented across departments and persistent challenges like data debt and talent gaps can slow efforts. The pressure is on to build AI-ready infrastructure and start experimenting now, but how? For technology leaders tasked with deploying AI across a 50,000-person organization, where do you actually start? Choosing the Right Approach: Build, Buy, or Platform? One of the first strategic decisions is whether to build internally, buy a platform, or adopt a hybrid approach to AI–a choice that’s often less about technology than organizational readiness. Build: Control & Responsible AI Building a custom AI stack offers the highest level of control and customization, but it’s expensive, time-consuming, and requires adequate expertise. Companies like Uber and Netflix have built internal AI ecosystems by combining open-source tools, proprietary models, and cloud infrastructure. This approach is best suited for organizations with […]
6 min read
Digital Twin It, Then Execute: The New Strategy for Enterprise Planning
Digital twins are providing measurable value as powerful tools for enterprise planning. From processes to physical spaces, enterprises across industries are turning first to digital twins to test ideas before acting in the real world. In this post, learn how real companies are using digital twins to plan electricity networks, marketing campaigns, assembly lines, and drive systems. The results include reduced costs, shorter timelines, lower risk, fewer errors, improved customer satisfaction, and more. National Grid: From Reactive to Predictive Planning with Digital Twins (ENERGY) The utility provider worked with Atos to develop Triton, a digital twin platform for streamlining the planning of electricity networks. Triton leverages advanced visualization and automated data integration to accelerate infrastructure (grid) decisions. To facilitate stress testing and provide long-term visibility, the platform consolidates and processes thousands of datasets from diverse sources such as legacy systems (internal) and Distribution Network Operators (DNOs) and transmission owners (external). Engineers can run rapid simulations of complex network scenarios – modeling future demand and supply at specific grid points and transmission substations – to make reinforcement decisions 70% faster (compared to static mapping) and direct investment where it’s needed most. In addition to identifying where new infrastructure is required and […]
4 min read
From Assistants to Operators: Enterprise AI Agents in Action
AI agents have seemingly replaced generative AI as the next hot thing in enterprise artificial intelligence. Salesforce, ServiceNow, Microsoft, and many other enterprise software tools all have their own AI agents marketed as helping businesses automate routine tasks and streamline workflows. And while theoretically this should free up employees for more strategic, revenue-generating, and customer-facing work; companies are looking to AI agents to alleviate the skills gap and do more with less human capital. What is an AI agent? AI agents are software systems or applications that use AI to complete tasks on behalf of users. Often powered by LLMs, AI agents go beyond simple scripts or responses to plan, reason, and use tools like APIs and databases to achieve goals with minimal human input and oversight. AI agents range in complexity, degree of autonomy and ability to learn, with the most advanced agentic AI systems capable of managing entire multstep workflows. Most AI agents are examples of composite AI or multi-agent systems, combining various AI techniques and data technologies to break down complex problems into manageable sub-tasks with each step handled by specialized components or sub-agents (e.g. a LLM for reasoning, a search tool for information retrieval, etc.) Today’s […]
6 min read
Data Readiness: The Real Bottleneck to Enterprise AI
In 2023, noting a serious operations oversight problem, BMW Group’s Hams Hall plant began centralizing its data gathering infrastructure with the ultimate goal of implementing digital twin technology. The plant was producing approximately 1.4 million components and assembling around 400,000 engines per year, generating vast amounts of data that typically ended up siloed. At one point, internal teams were reportedly using more than 400 custom dashboards across 15 different IT systems! The situation in Hams Hall reveals a significant challenge facing not only digital twins but digitalization in general: Company data. A foundational step in adopting advanced digital technologies involves locating, formatting, and integrating multiple, disparate, and often unstructured sources of data—a complex, resource-intensive, and frequently underestimated process. It’s not surprising that poor data quality is estimated to contribute to 40% of failed business initiatives. WHAT’S REALLY PREVENTING AI ROI? What if AI isn’t overhyped? What if we’re just not ready for it? When it comes to AI’s promise in enterprise, data readiness – encompassing data standardization, data quality, data management, etc. – is the elephant in the room. According to a 2025 MIT study of 300+ public AI deployments, 95% of AI projects fail. It’s not that the AI […]
5 min read
The Agentic Spectrum: Where AI Agents End and Agentic AI Begins
I read somewhere that the dawn of the AI agent was “one of the defining stories of 2025,” a sign that we’re moving beyond mere analytics to systems that have the power to act. AI agents have seemingly replaced generative AI as the hot new thing in AI, as evidenced by the proliferation of AI agent solutions and numerous articles about them. Then, there’s the term “agentic AI.” Engineering.com recently reported that DHL is carrying out the “next phase” of its AI strategy, which “focuses on agentic AI for its contract logistics division.” Elsewhere in the article it says that DHL Supply Chain is interested in integrating AI agents “to drive greater process efficiency for customers while making operational roles [better] for employees…” Apparently, the logistics giant has already deployed HappyRobot’s AI agents or “AI workers” across several use cases, including appointment scheduling, driver follow-up calls, and high-priority warehouse coordination; and internal teams continue working on designing new agentic capabilities. CONFLICTING TERMS “AI agent” and “agentic AI” are often used interchangeably, but it’s not clear they are the same. When it comes to AI agents, in particular, sources disagree on level of complexity, degree of autonomy, and ability to learn. […]
4 min read
Digital Twins Find Their Way Into Data Centers and Cybersecurity Experts’ Toolkits
Intro Digital twins may be an emerging technology, but they’re not new. In the 2000s, digital twins promised a new era of product development and lifecycle management in manufacturing. Digital twins have since spread their wings into industries like automotive, utilities, and even healthcare. More recently, the technology is finding its way into some surprising/interesting spaces like telecommunications and cybersecurity. Data Centers Artificial Intelligence (AI) is extremely power intensive. This is due to the volume of data, complex algorithms, continuous operation, and high-performance hardware involved; and it’s driving data centers’ energy consumption (and costs) to unsustainable levels. How can data center operators balance the demands of AI with sustainability? Enter digital twins. You may be surprised to learn that data centers use as much power as large industries like airlines. AI is both powered by and used within data centers, where AI – or, really AI-powered digital twins – can help mitigate AI’s environmental impact. You read that right: AI can be used to mitigate its own impact through predictive maintenance and even AI-enhanced augmented reality support. That means the ability to predict potential failures, optimize maintenance schedules, and thus reduce downtime. By digitally replicating almost every asset and service […]
3 min read
An AI Primer for Businesses
What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)? AI is a branch of computer science concerned with training machines to mimic human intelligence in order to perform tasks ranging from simple perception to complex problem solving and reasoning. AI systems learn to simulate human cognitive functions by consuming/analyzing large amounts of data, looking for patterns, and creating rules or algorithms to inform decisions. You can think of AI as the broader concept or overarching field, under which there is machine learning, generative AI, agentic AI, etc. Enterprise AI is the application of AI within a company – across a range of functions (operations, customer service, sales and marketing, cybersecurity, etc.) – to solve complex problems, improve decision making, automate (routine) tasks, optimize processes, and drive innovation through new products and services. Current State of AI in Enterprise Companies are eager to harness AI for immediate gains in efficiency, agility and innovation (and to replace labor). We’re seeing great interest and rapid experimentation but not necessarily positive outcomes. Generative AI has arguably had the greatest mainstream success. A recent MIT study provides a sobering reality check, finding that 95% of enterprise AI projects fail to deliver measurable impact. The majority of AI initiatives aren’t […]
7 min read
Digital Twins in Action: Industry-Specific Use Cases to Know
We’re back with 5 more real-life examples of digital twins in enterprise. We’ve seen Petrobras and ENGIE employ digital twins for asset visualization, TotalEnergies for automation, SEACOMP for virtual tours, AB InBev for operational optimization, Toyota for robotic system programming, BMW for production planning, Lowe’s to optimize store layouts, Renault Group for vehicle design, and more. Now, learn how companies in automotive, finance, and beyond are leveraging digital twin technology for applications like innovation and stakeholder communication. CHEVROLET – INNOVATION The Corvette ZR1 is the “fastest street-legal production car available for less than $1 million.” Before setting a top speed of 233 mph on consecutive runs around a closed track in Papenburg, Germany last October, the ZR1 got its start in the virtual world. Since GM doesn’t own the Papenberg track, it would have just three hours to test the ZR1 on the “big day” in Germany. Thus, the team turned to VR to calculate every detail “from car alignment to tire pressure” in advance, starting with a highly detailed digital twin of the vehicle. When it comes to vehicle design, digital twins are usually used to track changes during development. In this case, the ZR1 team used the “virtual […]
6 min read
Seeing Success: The Business Value of Eye Tracking in XR
Most XR headsets today come with some form of tracking technology. There are sensors and cameras for eye tracking, hand tracking, head tracking, motion tracking, and spatial mapping…Eye tracking, in particular, is essential to most extended reality applications and rapidly advancing with AI. Eye tracking, however, isn’t new, with roots in marketing, medical and other research as well as gaming. With recent advances, eye tracking data is becoming easier to collect and, as a result, it’s becoming easier to train algorithmic models based upon this data. Eye or gaze tracking measures the direction of your gaze. Combined with hand tracking, head tracking and potentially additional biometric sensors like EEG, eye tracking can reveal all kinds of things about the user. Input & Foveated Rendering In VR, eye tracking has user interface and performance implications. As an input method, it makes virtual experiences more natural and comfortable. Gaze is a natural interface, and grabbing a virtual object by looking at it is more intuitive than a controller. When you infuse physical sensations by adding hand tracking and haptics, it can really feel like you’re touching a virtual object and it’s responding to your touch. The combo of gaze and gesture controls […]
6 min read
From Data to Power: What’s Really Challenging Digital Twins?
Two years ago, BMW Group’s Hams Hall plant began an effort to centralize its data gathering infrastructure. This particular plant produces approximately 1.4 million components and assembles around 400,000 engines per year for a range of vehicles, generating a vast amount of data in the process. That data, however, would often end up siloed, creating a serious operations oversight problem and the need, at one point, for internal teams to use more than 400 custom dashboards from 15 different IT systems. So, BMW created a digital twin of the Hams Hall plant as a single source of truth accessible to all team members. Now, “everyone refers to the twin.” The story of the Hams Hall plant reveals a significant challenge to leveraging digital twins: To get to an accurate digital twin – a single source of truth – typically involves integrating multiple sources of data of different types and access methods. Such a complex task is hindered by factors such as data management, accuracy, security, computing power, interoperability, and people. Here’s a brief overview of 5 key challenges for digital twins: DATA MANAGEMENT As one source put it, data is the “lifeblood” of digital twins. Most organizations, however, don’t have […]
5 min read
Teleoperation, Training, and More: Where XR & Robotics Converge
Asked to imagine a factory of the future in 2021, Boeing predicted that “immersive 3D engineering designs will be twinned with robots that speak to each other” while “mechanics around the world will be linked” by XR headsets. Four years later and this vision isn’t far off from reality. The use of robotics, especially in manufacturing, is nothing new, nor is the use of virtual reality (VR) for enterprise applications like training. Where these two technologies are converging, however, is another, still developing story. We’re seeing the rise of several VR-robotics use cases, including: The use of VR to train robots The use of VR to operate/teleoperate robots and The use of robots to scan environments and capture information for immersive applications INTRODUCTION Robots have been in use for some time, mainly to perform automated repetitive tasks in controlled industrial environments. I say controlled because traditional robots are rigid and unable to adapt to change, which can put human workers, expensive machinery, etc. at risk. In regards to VR, we’re interested in humanoid robots as well as robotic arms. To be more specific, we’re talking about humanoid robots that can carry out complex pre-programmed tasks, be operated remotely (especially in […]
8 min read
Evolving Concepts: Digital Twins, Digital Thread, and Beyond
In my reading, I’ve come across various terms and definitions for different types of current and future digital twins. These have expanded my understanding of the breadth of use cases for digital twins in enterprise now and in the future of work. Here’s what I found: Introduction Digital twins can actually be traced back to the 1960s when NASA used them to study and simulate real spacecraft. Though the concept isn’t new, companies are finally starting to realize the promise of digital twins. Advancements in AI, IoT, cloud computing, and more are helping to make digital twins more useful, powerful, and accessible to nearly every industry. According to McKinsey Digital, 70% of C-suite technology executives at large enterprises are exploring and investing in digital twins. For manufacturers in particular, some of the earliest adopters, digital twins can be seen as an evolution of traditional product lifecycle management tools. No matter the industry or asset – there are digital twins of simple machine components up to the level of entire organizations and cities – the goal of digital twins has always been to better understand the physical world. What is it? You often hear about the convergence of IT (information technology) […]
7 min read
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