“Today’s AI is about new ways of connecting people to computers, people to knowledge, people to the physical world, and people to people.” – Patrick Winston, MIT AI Lab Briefing

According to figures from Statista, the global Artificial Intelligence (AI) market is expected to be worth around US$2.42 billion by the end of 2017. In terms of financial assets, the market’s most profitable facet stands as the AI for enterprise applications market, estimated to be worth around US$360 million worldwide. From image recognition, to automated geophysical feature detection, to object identification, detection, classification, and everything in between; the diverse field of computer simulation is reshaping life as we have come to know it.

“There is so much potential for AI development that it’s getting harder to imagine a future without it,” writes Or Shani, Founder and CEO of Adgorithms. “We’re already seeing an increase in workplace productivity thanks to AI advancements. By the end of the decade,” it adds, “AI will be commonplace in everyday life, whether it’s self-driving cars, more accurate weather predictions, or space exploration,” the feature explains, not to mention the far-reaching implications within crucial markets like healthcare, which are largely thanks to AI’s ability to rapidly analyse copious sums of human genomic data.

And with Microsoft pledging to make AI functionalities an integral part of every new software product, Google refining DeepMind to break through new frontiers of advanced machine learning, and Watson from IBM revolutionizing the current cancer treatment and research, it’s clear that technology’s most influential players stand firmly behind new developments in AI.

Figures from Narrative Science state that 62 percent of all organizations will be driven by AI as we soar through 2018. For example, technology continues to permeate every aspect of the manufacturing business, bringing us a wealth of ‘smart’ or ‘networked’ factories that incorporate data from supply chains, design teams, production lines and quality control to form a highly-intelligent, cost- and time-efficient engine of creation.

And in terms of design, AI and simulation software is literally changing the game.

“Efficient use of simulation can help optimize the entire production process, from design, to prototyping, and to manufacturing,” says Valerio Marra, PhD, Marketing Director at COSMOL Inc.

“It is of the essence for the success of any product that the implementation of any design or manufacturing iterations happens quickly and efficiently,” he adds. “The use of simulation apps enables collaboration across departments, thus having an important impact on production quality and promoting a streamlined workflow. For example, departments that are not normally utilizing simulation such as manufacturing, sales, and even marketing, can use simulation apps to test the effect of a design change on the production process.”

While AI is still universally considered to be within its infant stages, the frequent and rapid advances that send shockwaves through global industry are urging business leaders to reconsider key organizational structures. On top of becoming more collaborative and team-focused, AI developments are generally boosting efficiency and all-round workplace productivity. Fact is, companies who refuse to embrace emerging technological innovations will find themselves swept up in a tide of outdated strategies at near enough every functional level – a flood from which they’ll find it incredibly hard to recover.

But the future is undeniably technology-rich and exciting, with AI simulation software breaking through boundaries of what we once deemed possible. “The challenge for manufacturers will be to embrace the potential of this disruption and boldly explore how they might change the way they design and manufacture their product,” Machine Design explains.

“For many, the essential value that their product delivers to their end customers may be changing and they may need to reassess the best way to utilize the creative potential and experience of their workforce.”

Here are three of the world’s leading players in simulation software…

ANSYS

ANSYS Simulation: Developing tomorrow’s cutting-edge autonomous vehicles

Automobile manufacturers and their Tier 1 suppliers are delivering innovative, ground-breaking vehicles to today’s consumers. Many of them rely on ANSYS’ physics-based simulation to help them make self-driving vehicles a reality with the development of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous features.

The ANSYS simulation platform is crucial for autonomous vehicles. It replaces billions
of miles of road tests — and the millennia it would take to perform them — needed to train these vehicles to be as safe and reliable as a human driver. By using the comprehensive ANSYS simulation platform, automobile engineers can virtually evaluate thousands of test cases, driving scenarios and design parameters in the cost and timeframe required for a single physical test. Vehicle manufacturers and suppliers are able to solve quality issues upfront, plus save a tremendous amount of money compared to physical prototyping and testing.

From aerodynamics, engines and transmissions to passenger comfort and electronic systems, many of the world’s leading automobile manufacturers and suppliers trust ANSYS to help them re-engineer every aspect of vehicle design. To learn more about leveraging the ANSYS simulation platform in autonomous vehicles and ADAS development, click here to download the informative white paper. Read the full profile…

ALTAIR

As a dynamic team of more than 2,600 scientists, engineers and creatives across 22 global regions, serving the needs of more than 5,000 customers worldwide, Altair is a leading vendor of enterprise-class engineering software that enables innovation, reduces time for development and significantly reduces cost throughout the visionary project cycle.

Working alongside some of the world’s top automotive manufacturers – including VW, Renault, Ford, Fiat, Jaguar, and Land Rover – Altair helps forge trailblazing concepts, launch leading designs, offer virtual and physical verification, and perfect models for mass production.

“Our approach to automotive design includes an aggressive application of simulation technologies upfront in the development process. This ‘Simulation Driven Innovation’ philosophy allows you to find the optimal balance between weight, performance and cost for your products,” the company website notes.

“The result is a program with reduced risk and shorter cycle times, delivering a vehicle that meets functional attributes and mass targets on time.”

As a collaborative platform for concept development, Altair’s three-stage concept development process, C123, deploys the height of optimization technology, empowering the designer with structural data concerning the mass and attribute performance consequences of design decisions. Supported by a bespoke toolkit built off Altair HyperWorks, the platform works with CAD to ensure structural architectures will easily comply to a complex design environment.

MSC SOFTWARE CORPORATION

This company stands as a figurehead of the automotive CAE business, moulding the changing market landscape to fall in line with changing consumer requirements and government regulations.

MSC Software’s solutions head this evolution, forming a crucial part of the design and development process for all large-scale OEMs and other key suppliers. To heighten innovation and inspire greater efficiency, the company grants access to all necessary tools, covering everything from the analysis of component performance to system-level design.

Understanding that the management of simulation data produced throughout design forms a crucial part of the process overall, MSC also offers ground-breaking solutions for Simulation Data and Process Management. Above all else, this gives companies of every shape and size the power to capture, manage and retrieve the information throughout the process, bolstering both the throughput and efficiency of your automotive team.

“Our designers and engineers heavily rely on having not only the best software technology but also support at hand, whenever it is required to avoid any down time,” says Kevin Barry, Technical Director of Triple Eight Race Engineering. “In these ways, MSC Software has played a key part in helping us to achieve success and we look forward to having many more championships to celebrate.”

 *Some of the companies featured on this article are commercial partners of Tech Wire Asia