For Henkel, a chemical and consumer goods company, using analytics to gain insight into the supply chain has become hard-coded into its DNA over the past several years. With $20 billion in sales, the Düsseldorf, Germany-based company has three divisions: adhesive technologies, laundry and home care, and beauty care. Like other organizations, Henkel began a supply chain digitization journey several years ago, primarily to curb costs and become more efficient. But its initial foray into deploying Internet of Things (IoT) sensors to track various aspects of its supply chain – from manufacture and product supply to truck logistics and customer demand – gave way to a digital way of doing business that is automated, data-driven and agile in the face of rapid change. As moderator of a session on supply chain digitization at the Industrial AI Summit, Richard Self noted that Henkel's digitization brought the kind of ROI that companies seek when they introduce sensors, analytics dashboards and IoT applications into their environments.

Competition for deposits from giant institutions on the one hand and aggressive fintechs on the other has put traditional community-based financial institutions on the defensive. Both the large banks and the startup players have been able to capitalize on highly targeted campaigns guided by artificial intelligence tools. These AI-powered efforts can drive positive results without necessarily requiring the payment of high rates. Anyone can pay up for deposits, but such money rarely sticks absent some other reason or relationship. And the expense is usually not sustainable for institutions with high-cost branch networks.

Competition for deposits from giant institutions on the one hand and aggressive fintechs on the other has put traditional community-based financial institutions on the defensive. Both the large banks and the startup players have been able to capitalize on highly targeted campaigns guided by artificial intelligence tools. These AI-powered efforts can drive positive results without necessarily requiring the payment of high rates. Anyone can pay up for deposits, but such money rarely sticks absent some other reason or relationship. And the expense is usually not sustainable for institutions with high-cost branch networks.

As in many other sectors, artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are beginning to emerge in the chemical process industries (CPI). While AI-assisted solutions, and other associated technologies, such as robotic process automation (RPA), Internet of Things (IoT), automated drones and quantum computing, are still relatively new for many CPI applications, developers and users alike are realizing their potential benefits for expediting research and development (R&D), predictive maintenance, process optimization and more. Within its Smart Operations initiative, Henkel AG & Co. KGaA (Düsseldorf, Germany; www.henkel.com) is utilizing AI capabilities in its global process operations and supply chain. "We use AI to run efficient analyses of complex data arrays for achieving higher production performance, quick product innovation and scaleup for our self-adjusting production systems," explains Sandeep Sreekumar, global head of Adhesive Digital Operations at Henkel. "Our focus is not only on collecting internal manufacturing data, but also on actively working with customers on data collection opportunities during product usage to make improvements and adjust to changing customer needs," says Sreekumar.

A team at Mississippi State University is suggesting using robots to question children in investigations of child abuse. But not everyone is convinced. Children's accounts are often vital evidence in cases of abuse. But even specially trained police interviewers can find it tough to stay neutral when talking to children. This can result in leading questions and bad evidence, because children can be very suggestible to saying what they think someone wants to hear.