Robots are probably the first thing you think of when asked to imagine AI applied to industrials and manufacturing. Indeed many innovative companies like Rodney Brooks' Rethink Robotics have developed friendly-looking robot factory workers who hustle alongside their human colleagues. Industrial robots have historically been designed to perform specific niche tasks, but modern-day robots can be taught new tasks and make real-time decisions. As sexy and shiny as robots are, the vast majority of the value of AI in manufacturing lies in transforming data from sensors and routine hardware into intelligent predictions for better and faster decision-making. By 2020, Cisco predicts the number will surpass 50 billion.

Robots are probably the first thing you think of when asked to imagine AI applied to industrials and manufacturing. Indeed many innovative companies like Rodney Brooks' Rethink Robotics have developed friendly-looking robot factory workers who hustle alongside their human colleagues. Industrial robots have historically been designed to perform specific niche tasks, but modern-day robots can be taught new tasks and make real-time decisions. As sexy and shiny as robots are, the bulk of the value of AI in industrials lies in transforming data from sensors and routine hardware into intelligent predictions for better and faster decision-making. By 2020, Cisco predicts the number will surpass 50 billion.

It turns out GE Digital's acquisition of ServiceMax on Monday and its Meridium buy in September weren't the company's only recent moves to expand its industrial IoT expertise. Two deals for small startups, completed recently and announced on Tuesday, add interesting technologies that should help the company develop new capabilities and help enterprises meet challenges in industrial IoT. Both were announced at GE Digital's Minds Machines conference in San Francisco and didn't come with publicly announced price tags. In mid-October, the company bought Wise.io, a startup that GE says can refine machine-learning algorithms through a process like natural selection. In the industrial world where GE Digital operates, recommendations based on machine learning carry higher stakes than they do on e-commerce sites.