Top Takeaway from CES 2025: Artificial Intelligence Rules
AI rules at one of the world’s most influential and largest technology conferences, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). This year’s event highlighted a diverse array of products designed to enhance efficiency, personalization and sustainability. Most of the top innovations have some connection to AI advancements. For example, according to Manufacturing Digital, the number one manufacturing innovation is NVIDIA’s Agentic AI which is in essence autonomous agents acting on their own and without constant human interaction. NVIDIA’s CEO announced the Cosmos platform which advances physical AI with many manufacturing applications. Their number two innovator was Siemens. They highlighted industrial AI and digital twin solutions. Manufacturing has a bright future with the advancements of AI.
Trump Launches Stargate: Partnership Investing $500 Billion in AI
Trump announced a new public-private joint venture, Stargate, with OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank in addition to other partners such as Microsoft, NVIDIA, and others. This partnership will build out data centers and the electricity generation needed for the further development of AI. Although there is some controversy on the specifics of AI and whether there will be enough money, there is no doubt about the fact that AI will be the future. If you don’t lead in AI, you will be left in the dust. Use common sense but get in the game with AI to drive manufacturing and supply chain advancements.
Artificial Intelligence: The Future of ERP
No ERP partner will thrive long-term without investing in AI. In fact, the best are getting in front of this topic and leaving their competition in the dust. The big two ERP suppliers provide plenty of gusto on the AI topic.
Oracle is successfully chasing Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud with their Oracle Cloud Infrastructure business. Oracle dominates as a database software since it is used by 96% of the Fortune 100, and this is an important element of AI. Prior to Stargate, Oracle was on track to double its capital expenditures to $15 billion to serve AI related demand. They also announced a $1 billion investment to enhance AI and cloud computing capabilities. It is also a buzz on stocks websites related to AI.
Similarly, SAP has said it will invest over $1.1 billion. According to their press release, they consider it a strategic investment, are offering tailored cloud journeys, are focused on end-to-end integration (which is meaningful in our experience), and are realigning the workforce for growth. They are also focused on strategic partnerships with Microsoft, NVIDIA, Google Cloud and IBM.
Implications for Manufacturing & Supply Chain
There are countless applications for manufacturing and supply chain. Ranging from automating mundane tasks to generative AI with what if scenarios and predictive capabilities, AI will become a “must” to support customer value and drive profitable growth. For example, refer to our article, Integrate AI in Manufacturing to Raise the Bar to gain ideas on how to utilize AI in manufacturing. Additionally, read our MPO article, Manufacturing and Supply Chain Technologies: From 3D Printing to AI. Send us your success stories, ideas and feedback to drive AI success.
At a minimum, pursue simple automation with AI. Find out which tasks are repetitive and can be easily programmed with if/ then statements, and automate them so that your team can focus on the 80/20 to drive results instead of keying data and performing manual tasks. Next, look for opportunities to utilize predictive analytics with business intelligence systems, sales forecasting (demand planning) processes, capacity and SIOP (Sales Inventory Operations Planning) processes, and other processes such as predictive maintenance. In essence, think logically about what you can predict with reasonable confidence instead of waiting for issues to arise. Similarly, in manufacturing, install cameras to catch quality issues before they get out the door and to the customer; instead, look for issues earlier in the process and utilize predictive capabilities to focus your attention. To learn more about staying ahead of what’s to come, download our special report, “FutureScape: Crafting Tomorrow’s Supply Chain Today“.
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