SAS Invests a Billion Dollars into Its AI-Focused Research and Development
SAS, one of the biggest analytics companies in the world, is also looking at Artificial Intelligence as the next biggest thing to hit the enterprise. With a lot of buzz around Artificial Intelligence (AI), its applications and use cases, businesses are apprehensive as well as excited at the same time about the impact of AI and/or capabilities such as Machine Learning, IoT, Cybersecurity, Big Data et al.
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But when brands such as SAS, more recently even Samsung, publish thorough announcements about the adoption of Artificial Intelligence, it implies that AI is here, and here to stay.
How Will SAS Proceed with the Investment?
The money will be spread over three years in these three critical areas:
- Software Innovation – SAS’ initiative to expand AI for its global operations
- Education – To better understand customer needs, understand AI, and to benefit from it
- Expert services – So that AI projects can be deeply monetized
That being said, SAS will explore possibly every sector where its platform is extensively leveraged by businesses. Hence, we are looking at business domains such as:
- Data Management
- Customer Intelligence
- Fraud and Security Intelligence and Risk Management
- Financial services
- Government
- Health Care
- Manufacturing
- Retail
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SAS is also going a step further and teaming up with globally acclaimed innovation champions such as Accenture, Cisco, Deloitte, Intel, and NVIDIA. This ensures that SAS’ ongoing project delivers optimum performance in client environments.
“At SAS, we remain dedicated to our customers and their success, and this investment is another example of that commitment,” SAS CEO Jim Goodnight said in a statement. “With our innovative capabilities in AI, SAS helps businesses deter damaging fraud, fight the deadly disease, better manage risk, provide exemplary service to customers and citizens, and much more.”
If $1 billion sounds a lot, let us tell you that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Consider the example of SenseTime, a Chinese AI start-up, that may very soon be valued at $4.5 billion.
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