Multinational corporation IBM announced on June 2 several partnerships involving artificial intelligence (AI) and hybrid cloud computing that signal a 鈥渞apid reordering of business鈥 in Southeast Asia.听
鈥淭he cloud is a great leveler,鈥 said IBM general manager for the Asia Pacific Paul Burton, at听.
鈥淪ize doesn鈥檛 mean what it used to be in terms of punching power and market reach. What does that mean? It means think bigger. You don鈥檛 have to remain local 鈥 unless [that鈥檚] your objective,鈥 he said, noting the cloud鈥檚 usefulness for micro, small, and medium enterprises.听听听听
IBM is partnering with the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), a power producer supervised by Thailand鈥檚 Ministry of Energy, for the use of AI-powered asset management solutions to its power plants; the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), for the establishment of a performance evaluation platform for its assets; Thailand-based Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), for the adoption of IBM鈥檚 zSystem to run applications that support customer data and transactions; and Malaysia鈥檚 Silverlake Axis, an independent software vendor, for fintech infrastructure.听
AI AS BUSINESS DIFFERENTIATOR
Two studies conducted by IBM show that harnessing AI to increase sustainability is a top priority in the business sector.听
The听surveyed 7,502 senior business decision-makers and found that business adoption of AI grew at a steady pace in the last 12 months. Findings from Singapore further found that almost two out of five IT (information technology) professionals in the country report that their organization is using AI in their business (39%). About half also say their company applies AI to accelerate ESG (environmental, social, and governance) initiatives (46%).听听
These findings support a听that found that while about half (48%) of CEOs say increasing sustainability is one of their highest priorities for their organization in the next two to three years, 33% say technological barriers stand in the way of implementing this priority.听听听
Every massive transformation across time has been punctuated by new technology, Mr. Burton said.听听
鈥淚f you go back in time to 0 C.E., the line was flat until the 1800s, and then it started arching up. What happened in the 1800s? Steam power,鈥 he added. The trend continued in the 1950s with intercontinental transportation, in the 1970s with computing enterprises, and in the 1990s with the Internet.听听听
鈥淲e are now on the cusp of another disruption, another punctuation 鈥 which is AI,鈥 Mr. Burton said. Hybrid cloud and data harnessed by AI 鈥渨ill see an acceleration of the standard of living of everyone living on this planet,鈥 he added.听鈥听Patricia B. Mirasol
