Insights

The rate of innovation and adoption of automation & autonomous systems in non-manufacturing segments is growing faster and investments are pouring in. AMR’s (Automated Mobile Robots) are working alongside people in warehouses and helping in improving productivity. But, is this enough?

Cambridge Consultants' Ram Naidu, Senior Vice President, AI, welcomes attendees to the Innovation Acceleration stage at The AI Summit Silicon Valley 2021, day one. 

They are already physically loading our online shopping baskets, vacuuming our homes and maintaining our lawns. But what will it take for automated and autonomous systems to proliferate across industry and society – on the roads, city streets, building sites, fields, factories, and schools?

It’s a common fallacy that the task of perfecting navigation for robots and autonomous vehicles is relatively straightforward.

The extraordinary potential of what we might term empathic technology promises rich human/machine relationships that are almost unimaginable. 

So, whatever happened to the revolution? Sally Epstein writes of her passion to see empathic machines that do truly understand us, humans.

This paper explains how ‘turning trash into cash’ provides opportunity for companies to gain first-mover advantage in several fields. With a clear, problem/solution approach, it outlines a method that be considered simply as a way to capture carbon – but is more likely to yield benefits in the creation of valuable bio-derived compounds.

Now don’t be alarmed, but I want to pose a potentially unnerving question: just how safe is artificial intelligence? Those of you of a sensitive disposition might already be recalling images of James Cameron’s self-aware Terminators hunting down humankind in a post-nuclear wasteland.

Tim Ensor, Director of AI, opened the headline stage at the AI Summit London 2021 with a review of the most notable AI breakthroughs that have been accomplished in the past year and a recognition of just how hard achieving this level of innovation can be.

Understanding these challenges provides an opportunity to rethink our AI investments and significantly increase the impact they can have on our businesses. By applying design thinking, Tim shows, with concrete examples, what this means and how we can help each other achieve success with AI.  

Digital transformation surges on, with market sectors as diverse as automotive, consumer packaged goods and healthcare unlocking new revenue streams, greater customer insights and deeper connections with consumers.

Product owners in appliance brands across the world are sitting on the threshold of extraordinary digital opportunities – but a radical change of mindsets is vital if they are to take advantage of them.

What is it really like to work at Cambridge Consultants? Here, three senior colleagues look back on their time at the company and the experience of working here.