Sustainable AI: a driving force for accelerated change

Artificial Intelligence is one of the trendiest words at the moment. Trends come and go, but the importance lies in how to use them efficiently. The development of exponential technologies like AI is part of a larger trend, one which spans over many industries and which can be crucial for more rapid progression to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

To understand how AI can be a driving force for sustainability, we must also understand the role of data. Collecting large amounts of data is the prerequisite for developing new systems utilizing AI for increased sustainability to make predictions and insights as accurate and beneficial as possible. Deep learning, computer vision, natural language processing are some of the existing techniques under the myriad forms of AI which help in digital transformation.

One might ask, how does sustainability and AI go hand-in-hand? Health, hospitality, agriculture, automotive and manufacturing are some of the sectors in the industry that are already using AI for increasing sustainability of operations through, for example:

• AI recognising satellite imagery to monitor trends such as deforestation or species conservation

• Using machine learning which analyzes energy consumed by each unit in data centers to minimize energy consumption

• Reducing food waste and cost in supermarkets with computer vision that predicts which perishable products are at risk of being wasted

• Decreasing carbon emissions and fuel consumption through autonomous AI used in driverless cars

• Ai used to predict, measure and monitor the pollution levels and improve the quality of water or air.

SustainLab utilizes AI among other technologies like Stream Processing to its full potential to help businesses gather, process, and understand their sustainability data efficiently for real impact. We believe that, only with focus on innovation, we can achieve accelerated change for a Better Business-Better Planet.