Productivity, performance and confidence with SAS Viya

Last week’s immersion into the world of AI and analytics at SAS Innovate was enriching.

Having started my journey as a financial analyst and evolved into solutions architect and consulting, I have long had a keen interest in the evolution of SAS. This year’s event highlighted the commitment to human-centered innovation and focused on the pillars of productivity, performance and trust.

Day One: Productivity

The inauguration of SAS Viya Workbench marked a significant milestone in our journey towards unparalleled efficiency in deploying AI and analytics technology. Bryan Harris, CTO of SAS, unveiled Viya Workbench and highlighted its transformative impact on productivity and performance across industries. Viya Workbench is a self-service, on-demand computing environment for developers and modelers. It is designed for data preparation, exploratory data analysis, and the development of analytical and machine learning models. It accelerates AI model development with powerful SAS Analytical Procedures (PROC) and native Python APIs. Viya Workbench enables quantum computing research in drug discovery, financial modeling, chemical simulation, and optimization.

Georgia-Pacific LLCIt is Sam Coyne explained how they revolutionized their operations with SAS Viya Workload Management. The hypothesis-driven autoscaler example can be applied to data science jobs without affecting other types of jobs. The workload allows them to optimize data science tasks in real time.

During the News Briefing, the SAS management team welcomed analysts and media partners. Here are some highlights:

• SAS Viya provides a robust platform for leverage data and AI technologies to generate real value. It streamlines and accelerates the AI ​​development process and enables organizations to deploy AI more efficiently.

• AI Generation within SAS Viya enables the creation of purpose-built models using generative AI, solving real-world problems in various domains.

• SAS Data Creator provides a solution for generating synthetic data, facilitating accelerated AI development and experimentation.

• Co-pilot SAS Viya serves as a collaborative tool, helping users manage data quality and privacy issues while accelerating AI development.

These highlights illustrate how SAS Viya and generative AI are driving innovation and value creation in data and AI and enabling organizations to achieve their goals more effectively.

Day two: performance and confidence

Udo SglavoVice President of Applied AI and Modeling, highlighted the importance of models as a product to meet the distinct needs of various industries, reaffirming SAS’s commitment to fostering innovation within its ecosystem. You make introduced lightweight, industry-specific AI models, addressing a range of use cases, from fraud detection to healthcare payment integrity.

Jared Peterson, senior vice president of engineering and platform, highlighted some customer stories sharing their shared success. Senior Systems Engineer Sahbi Chaieb shares SAS’s collaboration with the French Rugby Federation to make sense of 540 million data points from sports data providers, video analytics and connected equipment, collected from over 5 years. AI and machine learning technologies provide unprecedented insights into player performance, enabling real-time strategic optimization, from lineouts to footwork. SAS Viya on Microsoft Azure provides comprehensive reporting and adaptable dashboards, enabling coaches to make timely, data-driven decisions. Data analysis on strategic aspects of the game gives the French team a significant competitive advantage, improving performance and achieving victories.

Discussions on trust led by Reggie Townsend, vice president of data ethics practice at SAS, highlighted the imperative for trustworthy AI:

• Transparent and explainable AI models are essential for decision-making.

• Preserving privacy throughout the AI ​​lifecycle is paramount.

• Detecting and mitigating bias in AI models is essential.

• Sound-based ways to monitor and assess AI health over time are needed.

My deep dive into trustworthy AI and discussions with Josefin Rosen reaffirm the importance of these advances. Watch the full interview here

As a board director, navigating AI governance and risk management is a top priority. It is encouraging to see tangible progress, thanks to initiatives such as SAS model cards and AI governance consulting services. I made a note to learn more about the SAS Risk Data and Analytics solution Kamakura.

The second day ended with Adam Grant‘s captivating keynote address, titled “Hidden Potential: The Science to Achieve Greater Things.” One idea had a profound impact on me: the notion of cultivating a “challenge network” rather than a “support network.” Grant delineated four archetypes of individuals: the giver, the taker, the agreeable, and the disagreeable. Surprisingly, he pointed out that obnoxious givers were particularly valuable individuals, whose nurturing nature is coupled with a true spirit of generosity. Grant’s perspective prompted me to think deeply and re-evaluate the makeup of my professional network.

Day 3: Collaborative value creation

The importance of partnerships in creating business value was highlighted by John Carey and Gavin Day on day three. Highlighting SAS’s partnership with Intel, the focus was on measurable business outcomes. SAS Viya’s speed outperforms open source and commercial offerings at comparable costs. Here are some highlights:

• The speed of SAS Viya is 30x faster than open source and commercial offerings at the same price.

• 49x faster than Commercial Data and AI Platform.

• 326x faster in developing complex models than business data and AI platform.

The event concluded with an energetic bounce party, symbolizing SAS’s transition from traditional to innovative. The meeting with SAS data scientists, their customers and partners was enriching; they exuded intelligence, enthusiasm and avant-garde vision. It was inspiring to see many senior leaders among them driving substantial progress in AI and analytics.

By leveraging the trio of productivity, performance and confidence, SAS Viya provides the fastest path to move from a billion data points to a point of view.

I encourage you to explore how SAS Viya can enable your organization to navigate the complexities of the digital age with confidence and agility.