Manufacturing & Supply Chain

CeADAR’s experience suggests companies are aware of the power of data, AI and machine learning but are hesitant to explore the potential for their businesses for a number of reasons – which can include lack of support at senior levels, lack of technical expertise, lack of funding, or a culture that does not value innovation.

However, over 1,000 companies in CeADAR’s extended community have immediately understood the significance of the transformative power of digitalisation for their business, profitability, and long-term existence, and CeADAR has now developed a programme to make that opportunity available to other businesses.

AI experts at CeADAR will either help companies to begin using AI or improve the way in which they currently use it by assessing their current AI capabilities and providing them with an AI Strategy Roadmap.

The transformative benefits that the adoption of AI can bring to businesses include greater efficiency, reduced human error, better customer service, and the informed development of new products and services and digital business models.

The service is made available and supported by Enterprise Ireland’s recently launched €9K Digitalisation Voucher.

CeADAR is funded by Enterprise Ireland and the IDA with a mission to help companies deploy AI technologies to boost their competitiveness, build AI capacity and support companies in finding investment. It has more than 90 member companies.

The process of establishing a company’s AI readiness involves assessing its position across a number of enabling dimensions through a comprehensive assessment. The enabling dimensions of the assessment include vision, strategy, inhouse expertise, culture, IT infrastructure, data, ecosystem, and execution. Most companies will not have all of the capabilities but will be able to access CeADAR expertise where needed in order to move on to the next maturity level.

Based on the outcome of the survey, CeADAR provides recommendations in the form of a high-level strategy roadmap. It then helps the company to identify use cases for AI that have intrinsic business value and collaborates with them in developing proofs-of-concepts and ultimately cutting-edge solutions.

Edward McDonnell, Director of CeADAR.

Edward McDonnell, Director of CeADAR, says: “The Covid pandemic has acted as an accelerant for companies in digitalisation and the application of AI to improve business processes, customer engagement and to re-imagine their business as first-class citizens in a digital world. The stark challenge facing those companies who are ignoring the data and digitalisation tsunami is that they will be left behind as the pace of the digital revolution accelerates.”

Yassine Jelassi, Senior Commercial Manager at CeADAR, says: “Companies sometimes don’t see AI as a transformation journey but as a solution to a business problem. That is a mindset we want to change. Companies need to go through experimentation to have sustainable value creation through AI. Sometimes, the value is down the road, what you get from the first project is understanding how AI could work for your organisation.

“Through this process, a team of CeADAR data scientists effectively becomes a client company’s AI Innovation lab as an extension of their data analytics team. We inject our DNA in their organisation and educate them around this technology.”

The benefits of CeADAR membership include advisory services, bespoke solutions, ‘test before invest’ opportunities, investment assistance, use of CeADAR computing infrastructure, executive and technical training, company workshops and CeADAR-supported apprenticeships within companies.

To inquire about CeADAR membership or the AI Readiness service, contact Yassine.Jelassi@UCD.ie.