{"id":11893,"date":"2019-04-25T10:37:13","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T08:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/proacomunicacion.es\/?p=11893"},"modified":"2019-04-25T10:37:13","modified_gmt":"2019-04-25T08:37:13","slug":"artificial-intelligence-key-among-top-50-most-innovative-companies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/proacomunicacion.es\/en\/la-inteligencia-artificial-clave-entre-las-50-companias-mas-innovadoras\/","title":{"rendered":"Artificial intelligence, key among the 50 most innovative companies"},"content":{"rendered":"

For innovative companies, the current landscape continues to be marked by the growing importance of digital technology. In particular, a new report by BCG entitled The Most Innovative Companies 2019: The Rise of AI, Platforms, and Ecosystems<\/em>reveals that companies that excel in innovation are increasingly deploying AI tools to develop new products and services and improve internal innovation. They are also creating technology platforms and ecosystems that allow them to tap into external sources of innovation.<\/p>\n

\"Digital technology and external innovation have become key factors,\" says Ram\u00f3n Baeza, Senior Partner at BCG and co-author of the report. \"The main challenge for companies will not be to identify and access cutting-edge technological development, which will have to be sought outside the organisation, but to implement that technology within the company itself, integrating it with existing processes.<\/p>\n

As the main conclusion of the report, companies agree that the application of artificial intelligence in their processes is gaining ground. 90% of respondents (2500 senior innovation managers) stated that their companies are investing in AI.<\/strong>Over 30% expect AI to be one of the innovation areas with the greatest impact on their business over the next three to five years and another 30% give AI a prominent role in their innovation programmes.<\/p>\n

The report shows that there is a big gap in the skills that companies have in AI. More than 65% of self-described \"strong\" innovators say they are above average in this area, compared to just 2% of \"weak\" innovators. Some 20% of respondents consider their companies to be \"strong\" innovators and above average in terms of AI (a group the report calls AI \"leaders\"). Among these leaders, 94% believe that AI is important for their companies' future growth, compared to 56% of \"laggards\" (respondents who consider their companies' AI capabilities to be below average).<\/p>\n

\"AI will have a substantial impact on business processes,<\/strong> but their greatest potential lies in their ability to develop new products and services that deliver large revenue streams over time,\" says Michael Ringel, Senior Partner at BCG and co-author of the report. He says that \"AI 'leaders' are already leading the way,\" noting that, at these companies, AI-based products and services introduced in the last three years have accounted for a much larger percentage of sales.<\/p>\n

46% of AI \"leaders\" report that products and services based on AI tools accounted for 16% of sales or more, compared to 10% among \"laggards\". And both agree that AI will gain ground in the future: 54% of \"leaders\" and 22% of \"laggards\" expect AI-enhanced products and services to contribute more than 16% of sales in the next five years.<\/p>\n

Major innovators access external resources <\/strong><\/p>\n

The growing use of AI is one of the factors that has fuelled interest in platforms and ecosystems. AI \"leaders\" report that they are more likely to rely on external providers for their AI projects. What's more, 36% rely entirely on external providers and another 48% use mainly external services or a combination of internal and external capabilities. This approach may be helping the \"leaders\" to move up the AI expertise curve quickly, as skills are still in short supply at present.<\/p>\n

This year's report shows that companies are increasingly going outward in search of new ideas. Collaborative models are on the rise: between 2015 and 2018, the number of major innovators using incubators grew (from 59% to 75%), as did collaborations in academia (from 60% to 81%) and business (from 65% to 83%).<\/p>\n

\"Digital technologies facilitate collaborative platforms and these in turn enable ecosystems that bring together a group of organisations to develop a new capability or product or service offering, or to advance a new field of science or technology,\" says Florian Grassl, Partner at BCG and co-author of the report. \"However, not all ecosystems are the same. Participants are linked by different types of incentives \/ interests. Of course, one of them is financial, but knowledge, data, skills and community can be just as important.\"<\/p>\n

Some ecosystems are extensions of traditional ways of organising and doing business. They usually revolve around an orchestrator with whom all other participants interact and have established hierarchies and structures. Other ecosystems, including many of those involved in early stage R&D, tend to be more dynamic. They rely less on a central orchestrator and more on versatile interactions between participants.<\/p>\n

Since 2004, the Boston Consulting Group has surveyed top innovation leaders from a wide range of industries and countries 13 times to shed light on the state of innovation in companies.<\/p>\n

With regard to the ranking of the 50 most innovative companies, for the first time there have been significant movements in the top five positions on the list. Following the global survey, Apple, which had led the ranking in all previous editions, drops to third place, with Google (or its parent company, Alphabet) and Amazon moving up to first and second place respectively. Rounding out the top of the table are Microsoft and Samsung.<\/p>\n

Although technology companies occupy nine of the top ten positions, traditional companies make up more than half of the list. Adidas (No. 10), BASF (No. 12), Johnson & Johnson (No. 14) and DowDuPont (No. 15) are all in the top 15, with new additions such as T-Mobile (No. 13), DowDuPont, Stryker (No. 35) and Rio Tinto (No. 49).<\/p>\n