The AI bonfire through the eyes of an industrial company

AI is being talked about everywhere, all the time, with a clear narrative that we are in the midst of a huge revolution, that the world is changing under our feet, and that if we are not 200% invested, we are not relevant.

The AI bonfire burns high and hot!

As an AI and Digital Transformation leader in a large traditional industrial company, I can understand this narrative but also challenge it.

On one side, I clearly see the amazing AI tools in the market, the results they bring, the disruption they cause in certain industries, and their future roadmap and potential.

On the other hand, the day-to-day reality in my company is completely different from what you see and hear in the media.

For several years now, the media has been filled with videos of robots and humanoids performing superhuman feats. AI companies publish amazing stories and capabilities about how their products change everything we know and used to.

So how come, when I visit one of our manufacturing companies, I don't see armies of humanoids walking around carrying heavy pallets, Human operators still work the assembly line, and in the office, people sit at their desks, manage spreadsheets, and move numbers around?

Because of the symbiosis

The AI bonfire is constantly fed by certain players, first and foremost, by the AI companies themselves - by the foundational AI companies like the OpenAIs and Anthropics of the world, and alongside them, the domain-expertise AI companies offering solutions for Marketing and Sales, Healthcare, Supply Chain, or Financial Services.

This relationship between the tech companies and media is highly symbiotic. Technology companies are sexy, media-friendly and usually don't have a problem to expose what's happening in their labs and what they are working on. For media companies, that's the perfect partner.

On the other hand, traditional and industrial companies, like Pharma, PCG, Banking, or Automotive, are not that sexy and far more closed to the outside world. Usually, these are huge companies that, due to their size and nature, are slow to progress and even slower to change.

The bonfire is fed by those who have an interest in keeping the fire high and hot, and they also happen to have the firewood

In addition, disruption is happening, but in some domains more than in others. The worlds of Marketing, Sales, Cyber, Consulting, and Coding have dramatically changed. New tools have already changed people's roles, refocused efforts, and disrupted everything.

However, in other domains, this is yet to come or has only just started. In Supply Chain, Procurement, Operations, and Finance, the disruption level is not quite there yet.

Another distinction I am witnessing is that most of the affected domains, like Coding or Marketing, are virtual, software-based, 'in the ether', powered by bits and bytes. It is easier for AI to have an impact there than in domains that rely on the physical world, on atoms, such as Supply Chain or Manufacturing.

The stories we hear, the revolution described, are mainly exemplified in the domains that have been affected and practically already changed.

We hear about the bonfire from those who have already been burned by it.

A good example of what is happening is the cloud revolution back in the mid-2000s. Software infrastructure moving from on-premise sites and racks to the cloud was a huge disruption. The technology was evolving, the upside was clear, and at some point, it was inevitable that it would happen to everyone. Some were early adopters, but for others, it took longer. In regulated and traditional industries, which some will argue are the backbone of the economy, the change happened years later. But it happened.

The same will happen with this one.