— By Buckley Brinkman, advisor to the Wisconsin Center for Manufacturing and Productivity
For WisBusiness.com
Artificial intelligence will play a major role in many organizations’ futures. The efficiencies and creativity unleashed with this technology will transform our economy, our companies, and the way we work. We must find ways to take advantage of AI to remain competitive.
An interesting study from The Brookings Institute – “Mapping the AI economy: Which regions are ready for the next technology leap?” – suggests that Wisconsin may have missed the bus when it comes to being a leader in AI technology. The study looks at 387 communities across the country and assesses each against 14 indicators to determine AI readiness. Against these measures, Wisconsin is a clear laggard.
Brookings divides these communities into six groups: Superstars, Star Hubs, Emerging Centers, Focused Movers, Nascent Adopters, and Other Communities. Unfortunately, Wisconsin does not measure up. Appleton, Milwaukee, and Madison all fall short; with none of the cities in the top two categories and only Madison cracks the top three. Appleton and Milwaukee are in the bottom two categories.
The report highlights the differences visually as well. It provides a holistic picture of each community, dividing the 14 indicators into three groups: Talent, innovation, and adoption. The process benchmarks communities against the best performers and provides the results in a series of interactive spider charts. Those displays show clear contrasts between cities.
The three Wisconsin cities all have lopsided spider charts, reaching the 50th percentile on only three out of 14 categories. All three cities rank above the median in jobs exposed to AI, the percentage of companies adopting cloud technology for their operations, and the amount of data available in digital form, making it ready for AI. Madison adds a fourth category in their use of High-Performance Computing.
These profiles show a region lagging its peers and not a go-to area for AI. We are being left behind and we clearly have work to do.
In many ways, AI doesn’t play to our strengths. AI is speedy – moving quickly and morphing to fit new situations. Wisconsin likes to be pedantic, moving carefully and minimizing risks. Software development and early-stage investment are not a part of our state’s legacy. AI technology also requires collaboration beyond our comfort zone to learn together and create the use cases necessary to lead in this field.
The AI development bus is already far beyond our stop on its route. It’s unlikely that we will catch up because we are not positioned to make the investments in time and treasure necessary to develop breakthrough models and agents. It’s just not in our DNA.
But is there hope for us? ABSOLUTELY!!!
Of course, there’s plenty of room for improvement. Our manufacturing ecosystem provides a great foundation for what we do best: Find efficient, practical ways to keep our manufacturers competitive.
The report uses an academic slant to evaluate these communities. In Wisconsin, we act – not just study. We know how to make things and improve our operations to stay competitive, resilient, and ready to meet every manufacturing challenge. AI will transform our manufacturing operations, provided we can fire-up our imagination to create a broad perspective and impose the discipline necessary to focus on the actions that will create the greatest returns.
We can lead the country in AI implementation. Next time, we can discuss how we can make that happen.
Read the previous column here.
