With the goal to speed up innovation and rework its digital infrastructures and companies, Ferrovial created its Digital Hub to function a gathering level the place analysis and experimentation with digital methods might, for instance, present new sources of revenue and enhance firm operations.
Since its creation over 5 years in the past, the Digital Hub has included a staff of consultants in innovation, applied sciences, and developments — equivalent to IoT, massive information, AI, drones, 3D printing, or advances in buyer expertise — who work in live performance with different enterprise models to determine and execute new alternatives. There’s no outlined hierarchical construction, however the Hub is predicated on a transversal and collaborative mannequin the place teams are created, and workers from all areas work on particular tasks together with exterior consultants.
One of many primary strategic transversal areas is AI. In line with Luis Carlos Prieto Fernández, head of Ferrovial’s AI heart of excellence (AI CoE), its worth is demonstrated by the work the corporate has been doing with all enterprise models. “They’ve AI-based companies that both make processes computerized, extra environment friendly, or present the enterprise with companies that give aggressive benefits,” he says.
With this in thoughts, the AI CoE acts alongside two clear strains at a world stage. The primary is the event of AI fashions and tasks for enterprise models that create digital options along with the remainder of the Digital Hub staff. The second, given Ferrovial’s international nature, is its steady contact with all models, performing as an AI information hub. “This enables us to contribute concepts and options we’ve already been engaged on, and keep away from duplicating proofs of idea and tasks,” he provides.
Getting AI off the bottom
After a number of years of innovating in AI, Ferrovial can cite many examples of tasks and companies benefitting from it. “If we have a look at what we might name basic AI, an instance could be our Herbicide Prepare venture, the place entrance cameras have been put in in a number of trains all through Spain that don’t go under 50 km/h,” Prieto says. “And mixed with the assistance of our laptop imaginative and prescient fashions, we’re capable of detect when there’s vegetation between the rails and shoot herbicide as much as seven automobiles behind.” With the ability to do that has financial in addition to ecological impacts — discount in the price of glyphosate by greater than 80%, relating to the previous, and solely irrigating the place vital, for the latter.
Plus, to supply all its companies with the flexibility to acquire info in report time, the corporate has been working with gen AI and LLMs, particularly Azure OpenAI, since December 2022. So tasks to research enormous quantities of information in a number of codecs already in manufacturing at the moment are significantly extra environment friendly and value efficient.
