Artificial intelligence as a service (AIaaS) is becoming an increasingly popular way to use artificial intelligence technology in businesses and personal manners.
Artificial intelligence is not actually intelligent but refers to the enhanced ability to process, categorise, and manage huge and growing volumes of incoming data, filtering out actionable insights and delivering new modes of value delivery.
In the current state of affairs, utilities often sit on vast stores of ‘dark data’, whilst adding to this existing cache from an ever-growing influx from increasingly intelligent field assets.
Current data practices are not capable of dealing with such high volumes of data, nor do they adequately process the data in an efficient way.
Artificial Intelligence as a Service Market
Artificial Intelligence as a Service market is seeing rapid growth as utilities and providers alike clamour to take advantage of this burgeoning market.
The market size for artificial intelligence as a service was valued at USD 1.13 Billion in 2017 and is expected to be USD 10.88 Billion by 2023, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 48.2% during the forecast period.
This comes against a backdrop of similar, rapidly expanding technological sectors that are driving next-generation development of the smart grid such as predictive maintenance, 5G, and the platform as a service market.
Artificial Intelligence is still in a nascent stage and undergoing creeping adoption.
Many utilities are exploring the use cases and applications to best understand where the technology can fit best, but there are clear value avenues emerging already.
For example, fraud detection and prevention, forecasting variables such as the weather and reacting accordingly, or in staggering electric vehicles charge times to reduce the load on the grid.
The applications are many and varied, with an increasing number of use cases emerging as time goes by and new methods of data transformation become apparent.
Add to that the clear value proposition of developing a data-driven approach to operations and the growth potential of this emergent market, AI stands to be one of the biggest growth areas for utilities in the coming years.
By uniting 5G, IIoT, cloud technology, and advanced analytic software, artificial intelligence as a service enables the processing of vast amounts of data in real-time.
Most current data handling processes focus on transporting data to places where it can later be siloed, digested, and finally utilised.
Structured and unstructured data can leave incomplete overviews of asset health, missing correlations between certain events or certain physical behaviours, like the unusual vibration behaviour of a given asset.
Artificial intelligence can leverage data
Artificial intelligence leverages these data sources in an entirely new way.
Artificial intelligence as a service can process huge volumes of incoming data in real-time and spot potentially deleterious patterns before they can manifest as something less desirable, identify unusual patterns of behaviour or even guide the workforce and create greater optimisation of workforce time-expense.
The value proposition for electrical utilities is clear: reduced costs at every turn, from reducing workforce expenditures (in terms of time) to reduced expense in terms of repairing and fixing assets.
Further cost savings come from the newly enhanced capability to have components perform at high functionality for the entirety of their potential usefulness.
Artificial Intelligence is still in a nascent stage and undergoing creeping adoption.
AI&ML for the Smart Grid 2020
At AI&ML for the Smart Grid 2020 the full range of crucial utility AI&ML topics will be tackled by in-depth case studies from some of the world’s most advanced utilities, including TenneT, Infiniot, Innogy, Stedin, Enel, Alliander, Enedis and many more.
Over 3 intensive learning and networking conference days, attendees will hear practical case-studies from 14+ utility data science leaders deep-diving into the industry drivers, establishing the business case, and implementing a technology strategy that will enable the rapid scale-up of AI-driven big data analytics programmes at a time of intensifying grid complexity.
The AI Journal are proudly partnering with the AI&ML for the Smart Grid 2020 conference and will be at the event to learn and hear from global innovators and thought leaders.
Dates and location
Conference: 8 – 10 September 2020
Location: Brussels, Belgium
As an AI Journal reader, you’re entitled to 10% off your ticket by using the code: AIM-20-MEDIA-AIJOUR
We look forward to seeing you there in September.
