Democratizing industrial AI with Mendix
Building a robust, industrial grade artificial intelligence solution isn’t a simple task by any means, requiring the intersection of domain experts and cutting-edge technology to reap the benefits that AI has to offer to industry. Democratizing access to AI technology will become increasingly important as the impact of AI on the ability of companies to manufacture innovative products in a timely manner becomes increasingly reliant on AI capabilities. At the same time, deploying an industrial AI solution isn’t just a matter of bringing together the right experts, access to a broad range of data from across an entire company will be of vital importance as well.
Tools like Mendix seek to democratize AI access by serving as an AI enabler rather than just a tool or provider. In a recent podcast Subba Rao, Director of Manufacturing Industries Cloud for Mendix, a part of Siemens Xcelerator, discusses the way they’re using AI to democratizing AI access, the importance of data and a connected ecosystem in the AI process and what the future holds for an AI-enabled industry.
Mendix enables AI
Ironic as it sounds, AI may be one of the best tools for democratizing AI access. As with many complex problems, the solution often boils down to accessing information in a simple and comprehensible way a field in which AI excels thanks to its ability to synthesize vast quantities of information in a natural language way.
Subba explains how this is a key enabler for Mendix that allows non-AI experts to leverage the power of AI, democratizing access to the technology and ensuring anyone who needs it, be they production supervisor to plant managers to engineers can have access to the best technology for any given task.
The importance of data: building a connected ecosystem
Beyond access to AI itself, making the data accessible is of equal or even greater importance since without it, no AI model no matter how advanced will be able to live up to its potential. Subba highlights how, in industry, an important way to acquire and manage critical, company-wide data is to build an integrated ecosystem.
In the case of tools like Mendix, it is designed to seamlessly integrate with other Siemens Xcelerator tools such as Teamcenter, Simcenter and Opcenter to easily acquire and manage relevant data for both training and inferencing. Building a unified ecosystem like this also supports the democratization effort, as it allows users without significant backgrounds in data science or tools that wouldn’t normally be part of their workflow to pull data for their AI projects simply and easily.
An AI enabled and connected ecosystem of tools goes beyond simply enabling AI itself and also helps to break down the data silos that have long existed between teams, groups or departments of a company. By brining all relevant data into the same data lake, it will also become easier to spot trends across an entire company, optimize processes from top to bottom, and do what’s best for the company as a whole rather than picking strategies based on individual areas.
The future of industrial AI
While building a unified and accessible platform for creating apps, accessing data, and leveraging AI is certainly an important goal for Mendix and Subba’s team, he does note there is still plenty of work to be done to reach the level they’re looking for. As they lay the framework today Subba and his team work toward the goal of creating a unified platform where data flows seamlessly between various systems, empowering organizations to build truly intelligent and interconnected applications.
Among their key considerations some include facilitating easier access to pre-trained AI models, streamlining the process of deploying and managing AI applications, as well as providing tools for continuous monitoring and improvement – key elements in any industrial grade AI solution. By simplifying the development and deployment process, Mendix aims to accelerate the adoption of AI across all aspects of industrial operations.
AI won’t find its place in industry overnight, but through the diligent efforts of many teams working to bring robust, reliable, AI algorithms where they’re needed and to the people who need them, the processes is inexorably on its way. Applied AI will have a profound effect on the way many people go about their work from designing next-generation spacecraft to writing blogs like this, it is nearly impossible to predict the full breadth of AI impact in the near future with tools like Mendix paving the way as they bring access to AI and key data to any and all who need it.
To learn more, check out the full podcast here or read the transcript here.
Siemens Digital Industries Software helps organizations of all sizes digitally transform using software, hardware and services from the Siemens Xcelerator business platform. Siemens’ software and the comprehensive digital twin enable companies to optimize their design, engineering and manufacturing processes to turn today’s ideas into the sustainable products of the future. From chips to entire systems, from product to process, across all industries. Siemens Digital Industries Software – Accelerating transformation.
