FEATURE Part 1: understanding the landscape Digital technologies have transformed society and businesses across healthcare, transportation, healthcare and beyond in ways that we could not have imagined just a few years ago. These sectors provide valuable lessons for the digital transformation of water. While water issues are local, digital technologies provide widespread benefits to all stakeholders engaged in solving them. While there is increasing interest and adoption of digital water technologies, the realities of this transformation can be challenging. Issues may arise such as workforce “readiness” with regards to training and understanding the culture of innovation, or lack thereof.
trate the challenges and opportunities confronting corporate professionals leading digital technology transformation. Opportunities and challenges While operational excellence in resource use and assets is an important value of adopting digital water technologies, the value proposition is more robust. Technologies such as AI provide greater support to the workforce, decrease business disruption, and contribute to more sus-
tainable and resilient operations. Digital water technologies can tangibly contribute to achieving corporate sustainability and water stewardship commitments. Quantifiable improvements in water stewardship can provide necessary proof points for external ESG reporting which is important to investors and the rating and ranking agencies (e.g., CDP Water). The challenges in adopting digital water technologies center on the availability of data, capabilities of the workforce,
THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION PLAYBOOK: A 3-PART ROADMAP TO NAVIGATE AI IMPLEMENTATION
Current trends There are several trends driving digital transformation for water within industrial sectors including: J The need to be more efficient and effective with water use within operations due to scarcity. J Increased scrutiny of corporate water use by stakeholders. J Increasing need for sustainable and resilient business operations and increasing demand for ESG reporting. The adoption of digital water technologies in industrial sectors was well underway prior to the COVID pandemic, but the pandemic accelerated the adoption across industrial companies given the need to operate facilities with fewer (and in some cases remote) workforces and to increase business continuity when confronted with physical, regulatory, and reputational risks. These risk dimensions can be more effectively or proactively managed through digital water technologies such as artificial intelligence. We will focus on the application of AI in the food and beverage sector to illus-
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This whitepaper provides a practical guide for the application of AI solutions in the food and beverage sector to increase operational performance, achieve sustainability goals and facilitate environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting.
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Will Sarni, Founder and CEO, Water Foundry -
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Prateek Joshi, Founder and CEO, Plutoshift