Decoding the New Era of Product Digitization

Connectivity and computing have changed the face of businesses everywhere, and the global pandemic has only accelerated the degree of technology integration into all aspects of enterprises.

IoT has enabled enterprises to connect, collect and make sense of data from numerous assets. Coupled with AI, IoT offers real-time data deciphering and actuation capabilities. Combining the intelligent use of sensors, software, and services, AI + IoT (AioT) transforms traditional products and business models into powerful data-driven solutions and services. This makes a solid case for product digitization.

Intelligently implemented solutions enable product manufacturers to monitor performance and use at an asset level and seamlessly return user data to gain powerful insights. It has become imperative for business leaders to tap into this opportunity to revamp business models and augment service levels.

Businesses have also realized that beyond connected assets, there needs to be tangible gains coupled with enhanced actuation. Adding AI to the mix allows data to form actionable insights from connected assets. Organization-wide data coupled with powerful AI becomes a key asset for the product manufacturers to become AIoT-driven.

At the prospect of an AIoT-powered enterprise, however, product manufacturers have to grapple with these questions -

• Can an existing manufacturer build a new business with AIoT?
• What are the tangible business outcomes of AIoT?
• Is IoT strategic, or is it just a Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) decision?
• Is AI+IoT another excuse for endless innovation budgets with no potential for profitability?

In fact, product manufacturers across domains are faced with strikingly similar challenges, boiling down to the opacity of these business impacts. Whether it is burgeoning warranty costs or the limited visibility of products in the value chain, performance monitoring and optimization is largely a black box even today.

AIoT is not only a path towards a more sustainable value chain, but also unlocks a new lever for product manufacturers to differentiate and enhance revenue with emerging business models. AIoT could aid immensely in inventory optimization and supply chain excellence. With a clearer understanding of various elements at play, manufacturers and their partners in the industry can reposition themselves to reduce costs and increase revenue.

AIoT-enabled manufacturers provide value-added services to end-users, thereby adding a stream of annual recurring revenue coupled with cost savings at the back end. Furthermore, it will enable a granular guarantee of service levels across the value chain, from manufacturing to recycling.

Ultimately, the ability to provide a personalized experience to consumers would ensure breakout growth.

The real-time collection and processing of data can also enhance R&D efforts. Data collected directly from end-users and service technicians are relayed back to manufacturers. Powerful AI deciphers individual product-level operational parameters and performance statistics. AIoT also enables granular troubleshooting, maintenance, and replacements, enhancing service productivity and effectiveness. All these benefits would enable manufacturers to make rapid, efficient improvements and reduce time to market while positioning themselves to control the ecosystem. Ultimately, the ability to provide a personalized experience to consumers would ensure breakout growth.

The AIoT ecosystem is key to the next era of product digitization, by enabling a stable ecosystem where product manufacturers have complete control.

The AIoT Ecosystem

The AIoT ecosystem will accelerate manufacturers’ growth, providing stakeholders across the value chain with a differentiated experience. There are three distinguished roles in the AIoT ecosystem: Users, Orchestrators, and Partners, all enabled seamlessly by the AIoT stack. The user will consume the benefits produced by the ecosystem, feeding real-time performance and use data back to the manufacturers. Partners contribute across various aspects - hardware, software, AI, etc., to empower manufacturers with the technological enablers to drive an AIoT ecosystem.

AIoT-enabled manufacturers can create and control the entire ecosystem to secure and chart the future to their advantage.

Enabling Orchestration of the AIoT Ecosystem

An intelligent product ecosystem is created with the monitoring of hardware, role-relevant software, and AI algorithms. This entails the integration of SaaS, IaaS, PaaS, design and development ecosystems, the entire product hardware engineering and manufacturing ecosystem, all enabled with AIoT to ensure that product manufacturers can orchestrate the ecosystem. This is what is referred to as the AIoT stack.

However, several questions and challenges arise while a product manufacturer tries to leverage and scale the AIoT system. To name a top few:

• How can AIoT provide value to all industry stakeholders?
• What can manufacturers do to increase adoption to scale the ecosystem?
• What is the strategy to deploy features across the solution?
• What is the best way to monetize smartly?

To answer these questions, it is crucial to carry out in-depth research, industry and market analysis using real-time data and use cases to create value across the product ecosystem. Identifying users, partners, and developers with agility is just as essential to craft USPs for the ecosystem. This also requires a thorough understanding of potential indirect revenues, legal framework, and data privacy requirements. Finally, it is important to align the short to medium-term organizational structures with the ecosystem’s goals.

For all these reasons, a fitting AIoT solution and technology partner can expedite the entire process for a product manufacturer, thus accelerating product digitization.

Given plateauing growth, market leaders must differentiate with technology. Control over the ecosystem is instrumental in capturing and extending market share by disrupting stagnant markets and winning bigger across financial, operational, and environmental KPIs.

Access to intelligible data across functions combined with strategic implementation is key to ensuring that product manufacturers control ecosystems. When product manufacturers embrace a holistic AIoT presence, they are also future-proofing their business to remain competitive. Having the technological capability and suitable infrastructure, manufacturers will benefit from reduced time to market, performance insights, supply chain excellence, and enhanced forecast across functions. This in turn will empower them to unlock the value they seek in product digitization by adding revenue channels, reducing costs and optimizing profits.

Product manufacturers need to collaborate with the right AIoT specialist to control the ecosystem and enjoy a hassle-free partnership. With Bosch’s technology and engineering excellence, industrial grade expertise, global manufacturing presence, AI capabilities, and partnerships, our IoT solutions are well-suited to solve the problems of manufacturers and engineer the next era of product digitization.