Digitalisation, AI and ChatGPT: terms that sometimes give governments and companies the shivers. Because what can or should you do with it and what are the risks? What does the future look like?
Jan Bakker, director and co-founder of Arnhem-based Avisi, explains how the company is committed to digitalisation and AI for sustainability. It does so, for example, in the legal sector, the healthcare sector and within the utilities sector.
Avisi
Avisi creates custom-made software for larger companies and semi-governmental organisations. It has been doing so since 2000, when the internet and software were still in their infancy. Then, as now, there was a considerable shortage of specialists and real knowledge and skills were being built up in few places. That's where Bakker saw an opportunity: together with his fellow students, he wanted to bring specialists together to develop better and better software. Thus, knowledge centre Avisi was born.
As a knowledge centre in the region, we hope to make a difference this way.
Investing in the future
As a company, it is quite a task to keep up with all the rapid developments in AI and digitalisation. Avisi is therefore busy developing as much knowledge and skills as possible and building its own products around AI. "It is a big challenge on a practical and political level. Many parties are still a bit afraid of the unknown AI," says Bakker. "That's why, as a company, we want to show with proof of concepts what is possible. So that politicians also understand that positive change is possible."
Today, the company collaborates with several universities on AI research, coaches student labs and start-ups, invests in future talent and shares all knowledge to move forward together. "We would like to play a role in the energy transition with AI-enabled software. The only way to do that is if we join forces," Bakker said.
Energy transition
"Digitalisation and AI promote the sustainable energy transition by improving efficiency and reducing costs. For example, AI supports smart grids, predicts maintenance, optimises energy storage and promotes energy efficiency of machines. In addition, AI improves the prediction of renewable energy production and manages decentralised energy systems. AI drives the growth of electric vehicles and improves carbon capture and storage. Finally, AI helps policymakers make informed decisions and empowers consumers to make more sustainable energy choices."
ENTRNCE is one of Avisi's customers dealing with that energy transition. "ENTRNCE is developing digital solutions for the energy market of the future. We developed a platform for them that can make the combination between local green energy and centrally sourced power. This allows municipalities to determine for themselves any combination of local and centrally generated energy."
Mapping the water system
Mapping knowledge and skills in water system maintenance in the Netherlands is another example of Avisi's proof of concept. "We use AI to automatically recognise more than 6 million documents and create digital twins of blueprints. This allows documentation and expertise to be automatically linked to assets, securing maintenance knowledge."
A digital twin of yourself as a mannequin
Sustainable transition is also possible in the clothing industry: "A hugely polluting industry: almost half of all clothing is thrown away or destroyed." With digitisation and AI, you could make the industry demand-driven. "The perfect example of digitalisation," says Bakker. "With AI, you then create a digital twin of yourself, have your measurements scanned and choose what style you like. This information can then be used to automatically pick out sets of clothes, which you can then order. This way, companies only produce clothes if you order them. That costs slightly more, but is much better for the world."
Faster than the rest of society
It all sounds promising and grand. It ís, but according to Bakker, they are still really in the research phase. "We cannot move forward yet. The legal aspect is still working against us a bit at the moment: the technology is developing much faster than policymakers can keep up. A shame, because we could mean so much in sustainability, for example."
Avisi follows all developments closely and will of course continue to do so in the coming period. "We stay busy and also spar with, for example, Arnhem's city marketer. Together we figure out how to keep knowledge in the loop and secure it. We want to share our knowledge, learn from others and see together how we can make society better."
