The Covid-19 pandemic sparked many companies to accelerate their digitalization processes, as companies and consumers moved their day-to-day activities into the digital space in order to comply with social distancing measures and public health regulations. This has given greater prominence to the world’s critical digital infrastructure, including data centers. Yet, amid all of this we have seen a revival of the age-old question of whether Artificial Intelligence (AI), required to meet new demand challenges, will ultimately replace human teams. At Vertiv, we believe Artificial and Human Intelligence are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they are quite complementary.
Ever since AI tools began to be adopted by companies decades ago, workers have expressed concern that such tools could ultimately replace them, though they in fact augment human productivity. Even before the pandemic introduced a major paradigm shift in business and consumer practices, analysts were discussing how human input and AI could work together to create hybrid systems. In 2019, before the pandemic, IDC had already predicted that 50% of core enterprise Data Centers and 75% of major edge IT sites would leverage Machine Learning (ML)- and AI-enabled controls by the year 2023. (IDC), a forecast whose timeframe the pandemic appears to have since accelerated. Such controls, IDC contended, would serve to transform maintenance and improve efficient energy resource usage, among other benefits.
AI has been revolutionizing data center operations, introducing greater efficiency, improved service offerings and reduced environmental impacts. The pandemic has prompted the need for critical infrastructure to work smarter in an intelligent ecosystem that can meet growing demand for such services. More companies are looking to AI solutions to tackle soaring data center workloads. Such solutions can not only help lower the mounting burden on IT management teams, but also reduce operating costs and boost efficiency.
There are AI technologies that provide essential tools for data center teams to receive warnings for problems that would otherwise have to be resolved by system administrators. They can monitor equipment and systems in real time, providing solutions or suggesting preventive measures. They can also block security attacks, create more fluid client interactions, and reduce energy consumption. As such, AI solutions are more of an ally to data center teams than a threat, allowing them to focus on tasks that truly require their input.
“The global pandemic has pushed AI to the top of the corporate agenda, empowering business resilience and relevance,” according to Ritu Jyoti, program vice president for AI Research at IDC, while commenting for the IDC Worldwide Semiannual Artificial Intelligence Tracker published in February (IDC). “Advancements in Machine Learning, Conversational AI, and Computer Vision AI are at the forefront of AI software innovations, architecting converged business and IT process optimizations, predictions and recommendations, and enabling transformative customer and employee experiences.”
Vertiv uses AI solutions for data center customers to monitor their operations across various locations, prevent service disruption, decrease resolution time when events occur, and improve overall critical infrastructure efficiency. In Chile, for example, where mining companies often operate under extreme climatic conditions, such as at high altitudes or in desert terrain, infrastructure and IT systems are put to the test. Vertiv offers a full range of mission-critical solutions designed to withstand extreme weather. These include AI applications that integrate IT capabilities and can both warn of impending issues as well as support companies in addressing them in an agile manner. Vertiv monitoring systems, integrated into all of the company’s products, provide data centers with everything from cameras for visual monitoring to automated temperature, moisture, airflow and liquid sensors that work autonomously.
There is little doubt that companies will continue to require the services of system engineers to take preventive or corrective action when alerted by Vertiv’s solutions, using AI as a powerful tool to quickly identify and pinpoint issues. As data centers increase investments in AI to help them meet additional demand sparked by the current digitalization boom, these tools will help teams operate more efficiently and smartly. In the end, the issue will not be whether or not we will see a battle between humans and AI, but instead whether or not we will embrace a much more productive formula of humans + AI.
