The landscape of digital servitization in the manufacturing sector is evolving, marked by a strategic shift from traditional product-centric to platform business models (BMs). Manufacturing firms often employ a blend of approaches to develop business-to-business (B2B) platforms, leading to significant reconfigurations in their BMs. However, they frequently encounter failures in their B2B platform development initiatives, leading them to abandon initial efforts and pivot to alternative platform strategies. Therefore, this study, through an in-depth case study of a manufacturer in the energy sector, articulates a three-phase pivoting framework for B2B platform BMs, including platform development and platform strategy. Initially, the manufacturer focused on asset-based product sales supplemented by asset maintenance services and followed an emergent platformization strategy characterized by the rise of multiple, independent B2B platforms catering to diverse functions. Next, focusing on the imposed customer journey strategy, the firm shifted towards a strategic multi-platform integration into an all-encompassing platform supported by artificial intelligence (AI), signaling a maturation of the platform BM to combine a wide range of services into an energy-performance-based contract. Finally, the last step of the firm's platform BM evolution consisted of a deliberate platform strategy open to external stakeholders and enveloping its data-driven offerings within a broader platform ecosystem. This article advances B2B platform BMs and digital servitization literature, highlighting the efficacy of a progressive approach and strategic pivoting.

Artificial intelligence will be worth about $17.5 billion in the global supply chain management (SCM) software market by 2028, according to a new market report, "Global Artificial Intelligence in Supply Chain Management Market by Technology, Processes, Solutions, Management Function (Automation, Planning & Logistics, Inventory, Risk), Deployment Model, Business Type, and Industry Verticals 2023-2028." The authors said that market analysis shows AI-enabled supply chains are 67% more effective than their non-AI counterparts, thanks to reduced risks and lower overall costs. The study, released by ResearchAndMarkets.com April 10, noted that the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region is expected to be the largest and fastest-growing supplier of artificial intelligence for the global SCM market. The report also examined several forms of AI, including cloud-based AI-as-a-service solutions, which it predicted will be worth more than $3.7 billion by 2028, reaching more than 21% of the total market in the next five years.

Artificial intelligence is one of the fastest-growing technologies in the world today, offering a wide range of uses to make life easier and daily tasks more efficient. Rather than replace human intelligence, artificial intelligence acts as a supporting tool in processing loads of data and yielding results faster than the human brain could. Artificial intelligence gathers attention in many aspects of our lives, and the business world is not left out. With artificial intelligence, an organization's efficiency is greatly improved, taking off much workload and reducing human errors. With time, these systems also learn and become even smarter. With AI, fraud detection, improved consumer experience, predictive analysis, increased sales, and automated work processes can be significantly improved.

During the Gilded Age and the second industrial revolution, the world saw rapid adoption of life-altering technologies -- electricity, rail transport, the automobile, telegraph communications and then the telephone. Thanks to these innovations, companies were able to create and sell products they could not before to people they had not previously been able to reach, in ways they never could have envisioned. That young United States saw unprecedented growth, with total national wealth increasing from $16 billion in 1860 to $88 billion by 1900. Today's evolution looks set to be just as transformative. Disruptive technologies like augmented reality, artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things (IoT) are already having an impact.

The last five years have been the, "coming of age," period for technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, mixed reality (MR), and blockchain. By late 2017, these technologies gained enough maturity and stability for use in industrial settings. As such, 2018 is shaping-up to be a pivotal year for these promising technologies to be applied in several realms of supply chain, such as end-to-end visibility, product tracking, fraud, settlements, compliance, productivity, worker safety, and delivery speed. Here are seven key trends that are driving innovation, change and agility in today's supply chains. No. 1 - Blockchain and IoT will gain adoption for supply chain traceability Tracking the product component genealogy, place of origin, quality chain, and location can be simplified and streamlined significantly with IOT and blockchain.

Digital transformation, connected customers and increasingly hyperconnected business ecosystems are transforming manufacturing as we know it. Driving these changes is the fourth industrial revolution, also known as Industry 4.0. This new paradigm in manufacturing, which comprises technologies like cloud computing, data analytics, artificial intelligence, connected robotics and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), is helping manufacturers enhance efficiencies, collaboration and supply chain partnerships. It's one reason why UK manufacturers recently reported the second-highest level of optimism in nearly a decade, according to The Manufacturer's Annual Manufacturing Report. Microsoft has partnered with The Manufacturer on a new whitepaper detailing how manufacturers are embracing Industry 4.0 and the IIoT to take advantage of cloud-based technologies to ingest and analyze huge volumes of machine-generated data and implement autonomous systems that can turn data into actionable information.