Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming industries, but its real impact lies in how companies use it through strategic partnerships. These collaborations drive innovation, accelerate product development and create new market opportunities.
Co-innovation is a strategic necessity in today’s competitive landscape. Developing cutting-edge AI capabilities in-house is expensive and time-consuming. However, by collaborating with other businesses and looking beyond your industry, you can speed time to market, reduce costs and gain a competitive advantage.
4 keys to successful AI co-innovation partnerships
1. Identify synergistic forces
Strengthen your positioning by partnering with those who offer complementary expertise. Think beyond traditional industry boundaries. Consider how these tech companies have collaborated with companies in more “traditional” industries.
Pfizer and Tempus: Revolutionize cancer treatment with AI
Pfizer partners with Tempusan AI-based precision medicine company, to improve its oncology drug development. With Tempus’ broad multimodal data and machine learning capabilities, Pfizer can accelerate drug discovery and improve patient selection for clinical trials.
Microsoft and JPMorgan Chase: Advancing Financial AI
Microsoft and JPMorgan Chase have expanded their collaboration to develop advanced AI models for financial services. They enhanced their fraud detection and risk management systems by combining Microsoft Azure machine learning tools with JPMorgan’s proprietary data.
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2. Co-create the vision
Both companies should have a common understanding of the problem they are solving and how AI can help them achieve their goals. AI is not the solution in itself; it is a powerful technology that helps find solutions. These examples show how partners co-create and collaborate to solve real-world challenges using AI.
Walgreens and Verily: Improving medication adherence with AI
Walgreens has partnered with Verily (an Alphabet company) to solve the problem of patients missing medication doses. It is estimated that this will cost health systems dearly 100 to 300 billion dollars per year. By combining Verily’s AI capabilities with Walgreens’ patient data, they can predict and avoid missed doses, improving patient outcomes and reducing healthcare costs.
BMW and NVIDIA: optimize automobile production with a virtual factory
BMW partners with NVIDIA to improve factory planning and operations using AI. Together they created a virtual factory, a digital twin of BMW’s production facilities. This allows BMW to simulate production flows and identify potential problems. Before the physical factory opens its doors and ensures smoother and more efficient operations.
3. Create and use shared data ecosystems
AI thrives on data. Partners must be willing to share data securely and transparently to maximize their potential. The following examples demonstrate the growing importance of data sharing in AI partnerships.
Walmart and Pactum: Automate negotiations with suppliers
Walmart deployed a chatbot powered by Pactum’s AI technology to negotiate with human suppliers. Pactum’s AI analyzes data from both parties to identify mutually beneficial outcomes and create personalized proposals, leading to faster and more effective negotiations. The chatbot conducts 2,000 negotiations simultaneously, allowing Walmart to streamline purchasing, reduce costs and improve supplier relationships.
Kraft Heinz and Google Cloud: Maximize Efficiency with Demand Forecasting
Kraft Heinz formed a multi-year partnership with Google Cloud to use AI for deeper consumer insights and improved product development. Using Google AI demand forecasting, Kraft Heinz can analyze sales history, product promotions, and even macroeconomic factors. This data sharing allows Kraft Heinz to improve forecast accuracy, optimize production planning and reduce inventory costs.
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4. Pilot, iterate, scale
AI solutions often require an iterative approach. Start with a pilot project to validate the partnership, collect data and refine the strategy. The following examples demonstrate the successful scaling of AI partnerships after impactful pilot programs.
Walmart and Symbotic: automating distribution with AI
Walmart has partnered with Symbotic to automate its fulfillment centers using AI-powered robotics. Initial pilot programs in selected locations have proven effective, demonstrating increased speed and accuracy. As a result, Walmart is expand technology to the 42 regional distribution centers.
Bayer and Google Cloud: Accelerating drug discovery with AI
Bayer’s pilot project with Google Cloud used AI to analyze large datasets of genomic information and identify potential drug targets. This demonstrated significant potential to reduce drug development time and costs, leading to Bayer to expand AI initiatives to expand its AI initiatives in drug discovery and patient diagnosis.
Shape your future with AI
AI co-innovation partnerships are not just a trend. They represent a fundamental shift in the way businesses operate and thrive. By forming these strategic alliances and applying these key principles, companies can unlock unprecedented opportunities for growth, efficiency and market leadership. The key question is not if how to embrace AI co-innovation, but how to strategically use its potential to reshape your future.
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