This week at our annual Tech World event in Beijing we shared Lenovo’s innovative technological achievements from the past year, our vision of Smarter Tech for All and explored the future for ambitious intelligent transformation strategies and the infinite possibilities that the ongoing technological revolution has to offer.
Over the past two years, we’ve been trying to imagine what a brighter future in the intelligent era will look like, and now – after all our hard work – we have truly entered the age of intelligence, where data intelligence is powering industry transformation at large.
Smart cities, smart transportation, smart retail, smart finance, smart healthcare – these transformative technologies are enabling broader accessibility to government and social services by ensuring that the services provided are equal and as efficient as possible.
In this way, technology is bringing about more care and convenience for the populations it serves. This industry-wide intelligent transformation is unleashing huge dividends in terms of efficiency, while driving down management costs for the whole of society.
In essence, “data intelligence”, driven by data, computing power and algorithms, is the key facilitator behind all this change.
Since its inception 60 years ago, AI has largely been limited to labs and hasn’t become commercially available. The rapid intelligent transformation currently taking place across industries would never have been achieved without the advancement of the following three important elements:
Development of IoT
“Computer” is now a legacy term. “Computing” will dominate the future. Increasingly, computing components will be incorporated in a variety of products that were previously not intelligent, thus creating new types of smart devices and sensors.
These instruments will generate massive data, which will then be integrated with Internet data and information produced by digitalized enterprises. As such, they will engender tremendous industry-specific big data that will become the “fuel” for intelligent transformation.
Infrastructure
High-performance computing now provides much more powerful computing power. Cloud computing/edge computing delivers ubiquitous computing power, while 5G networks enable fundamental improvements the speed and capacity of data transmission. These advances combined will support computing power in the intelligent era, forming an “engine” for intelligent transformation.
Advanced algorithms
AI algorithms such as machine learning and deep learning can extract valuable information and knowledge by learning and analyzing a mammoth amount of big data, thereby “turbocharging” intelligent transformation.
With data as the fuel and computing power as the engine, more effective decision-making outcomes and efficient business processes can be attained through big data tools and advanced algorithms, combined with the knowhow from all walks of life. This is what we call “Data Intelligence” or “Industry Intelligence”.
“Data Intelligence” will empower the intelligent transformation of all industries. It is poised to serve as the “steering wheel” for industry transformation, bringing about an industrial revolution that will progress and benefit society and lead us into an exciting “Era of Data Intelligence”.
This market has great potential. According to a forecast from Deloitte, the global AI market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30 percent from 2017 to 2025. By 2025, the market is expected to exceed $6 trillion.
Lenovo has been vigorously promoting intelligent transformation through three key initiatives over the last few years: Smart IOT, Smart Infrastructure, and Smart Vertical. We are dedicated to becoming a leader and a key enabler and driver of intelligent and the “Era of Data Intelligence”.
Smart IoT
Firstly, I would like to talk about Smart IoT. The data it generates is the fuel and foundation for intelligent transformation.
Lenovo has a broad portfolio of smart hardware products. We are striving to make existing devices, PCs, tablets, mobile phones etc. more intelligent. Our new devices are always on, can connect in real time around the clock, and collaborate with other devices; they can interact through natural language and actively adapt to user needs; we are also dedicated to enabling them to become adaptive to various industry intelligence scenarios, empowering them to become devices capable of collecting data for intelligent IoT. For example, in the insurance industry, tablets that were previously used for home entertainment have now become productivity tools for salesmen to generate and transmit e-orders.
In addition, we are expanding on our innovative commercial IoT offerings, covering scenarios such as smart manufacturing, smart cities, smart healthcare, smart retail, and smart education. These offerings include data acquisition sensors, data access gateways and data computing modules, as well as one-stop IoT solution based on vertical scenarios.
The data generated via these devices will constantly feed into IoT platforms and unlock new value through intelligent analytics.
Smart Infrastructure
Second, another of Lenovo’s initiatives revolves around Smart Infrastructure, which fuels intelligent transformation with computing power. Lenovo can provide an infrastructure that underpins end-edge-cloud-network synergy with a focus on end-edge, edge-network and edge-cloud collaboration to meet industries’ need for computing power as they embark on smart transformation.
The rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) has seen more and more devices capable of data collection connected to networks, generating a colossal amount of data. This huge change is driving businesses’ computing needs to move from back-end to front-end edge as low-latency smart algorithm processing is required to process the vast data, a shift supported by the proliferation of 5G technology. Lenovo boasts low-power, high-performance edge servers and edge computing cloud platform products that meet the demand for near real-time computing and real-time feedback for a diverse range of use cases including smart warehousing and smart security.
5G, which connects and coordinates end, edge and cloud more closely than ever, is a catalyst for development of many elements needed in intelligent transformation. It allows more devices to be connected to IoT and large-scale computing, analysis and assessment to be performed at the edge in real time. In addition, 5G also allows network infrastructure to be virtualized and software-based, achieving the integration of cloud and network and giving rise to network function virtualization (NFV), which will drastically cut the cost of 5G buildout and enhance network flexibility.
Lenovo has for many years invested heavily in 5G and has applied for over 500 5G Standard Essential Patents. We have not only taken the lead in releasing 5G PCs and 5G mobile phones, but also established a Cloud Network Convergence Division that focuses on 5G network technologies and applications. In August, we signed an agreement with the Chongqing Municipal Government to invest in the construction of the 5G Cloud Network Convergence Headquarters in Chongqing.
Smart Vertical
Our third category of initiative is, Smart Vertical. If we compare the intelligent transformation of all industries to the construction of smart buildings, then smart IoT devices and smart infrastructure are the indispensable “building blocks”. In order to construct these buildings however, we must create “architectural blueprints” based on clients’ business pain points and business needs and then employ construction teams to use the various types of “building blocks” to complete the construction according to the plan.
Fortunately, Lenovo is uniquely positioned to take on this dual role thanks to our remarkable progress in recent years. We now have all the essential assets required for intelligent transformation and believe we are the best placed company to help companies on this journey. In addition to having the necessary “building blocks”, we are also endeavoring to become “designers” and “construction teams”, developing the blueprints that will drive the intelligent transformation of our enterprise clients.
Creating a better, more intelligent future
As a global high-tech manufacturing company, we kicked off our own intelligent transformation journey powered by data intelligence as early as 2013. Using proprietary technology, we have developed smart technology and management systems covering the full value chain encompassing research, production, supply, sales and service. This enabled us to improve the quality and efficiency of manufacturing and better satisfy clients’ demand for personalization and customization.
The industrial transformation driven by data intelligence is well underway and no one will be able to avoid it. Lenovo this year officially launched a new brand vision — Smarter Technology For All, fully committing ourselves to helping lead and shape the intelligent transformation now sweeping across the globe.
We will do our utmost to leverage data intelligence to provide smarter technologies, products, platforms and services for our customers, to drive transformation forward, help upgrade various industries and create a better, more intelligent future.