Expanded SAS Viya leverages generative AI to boost customer efficiency

  • SAS Viya’s integration of generative AI (GenAI) is driving tangible efficiency and productivity gains for organizations.
  • Leading companies like Georgia-Pacific and Wienerberger are leveraging Viya’s AI capabilities to optimize manufacturing processes and enhance decision-making.
  • SAS continues to innovate with the introduction of SAS Data Maker and industry-specific GenAI assistants, further expanding its GenAI portfolio.
  • Viya stands out with industry-driven GenAI applications, offering solutions for accelerating innovation, protecting data, enhancing governance, and making precise decisions.
  • The announcement was made at SAS Innovate, underscoring SAS’s commitment to driving data and AI advancements for businesses.

Main AI News:

Organizations have embraced generative AI (GenAI) in the past year, but are these endeavors yielding tangible results? For those utilizing the SAS® Viya platform, the answer is a definitive yes. Empowered with robust large language model (LLM) orchestration capabilities, SAS Viya is already empowering customers to enhance efficiency and productivity significantly. Throughout 2024, SAS is set to further drive innovation by expanding its reliable GenAI portfolio, introducing its proprietary synthetic data generator – SAS Data Maker – and offering industry-specific GenAI assistants.

SAS’ fundamental principle is to democratize data querying and complex analytics operations across all stages of the data and analytics life cycle, with generative AI playing a pivotal role in this journey,” stated Wiktor Markiewicz, Senior Market Research Analyst at IDC. “However, many leaders struggle to grasp AI technology and its meaningful applications. The availability of a trusted data and AI platform like SAS removes uncertainties and jumpstarts the generative AI expedition.

Georgia-Pacific and Wienerberger Harness Viya for AI Advancements

Leading manufacturer Georgia-Pacific is a Viya user, utilizing SAS for AI capabilities. Roshan Shah, Vice President of Collaboration & Support Center at Georgia-Pacific, explained, “When challenges arise in our manufacturing processes or equipment, we leverage sensor data, business rules, recommender systems, and generative AI to recommend the best course of action and resolve issues promptly.” SAS Viya’s streaming analytics and intelligent decision management enable Georgia-Pacific to capture immediate value by making informed decisions in real-time.

Bryan Harris, SAS Executive Vice President and CTO, highlighted the importance of industry expertise in SAS’ approach. “SAS boasts a deep understanding of various industries, including manufacturing. We collaborate closely with Georgia-Pacific to scale LLM orchestration and implement manufacturing-specific GenAI strategies, empowering their workforce to leverage cutting-edge applications for real-time troubleshooting,” he added.

Global brick manufacturer Wienerberger also relies on SAS for AI support, leveraging it on Microsoft Azure to enhance energy efficiency, reduce emissions, and optimize product quality. Florian Zittmayr, Team Lead for Data Science at Wienerberger, emphasized, “SAS Analytics enables us to integrate data streams seamlessly and analyze the entire production process, bringing intelligence to our operations and improving efficiency.

Enhancing Decision-Making with Viya and GenAI Capabilities

A global consumer goods manufacturer utilizes Viya and its GenAI features to optimize warehouse operations, allocate shipments efficiently, and simulate various scenarios based on demand fluctuations. By deploying an LLM-based digital assistant, developed with SAS, the company can update SAS Visual Analytics dashboards dynamically, enabling supply chain teams to enhance decision-making with comprehensive analytics.

Despite enthusiasm for GenAI adoption, organizations often face challenges in execution. To delve deeper into this dynamic landscape, explore the US Executive Summary of the latest study: Generative AI Challenges and Potential Unveiled: How to Achieve a Competitive Advantage.

Viya Stands Out with Industry-Driven GenAI Applications

As organizations embrace GenAI, SAS focuses on identifying industry-driven and ethically applied use cases. SAS ensures secure adoption and accelerates productivity across diverse industries and regulatory frameworks. Key GenAI functionalities are integrated into leading products like Viya and SAS Customer Intelligence 360:

  • GenAI Orchestration: Viya seamlessly integrates external GenAI models into existing business processes, orchestrating LLMs for enterprise-wide applications.
  • Viya Copilot: This personal assistant enhances productivity for developers, data scientists, and business users, offering tools for various tasks, including code generation, data exploration, and marketing planning.
  • SAS Data Maker: Addressing data privacy concerns, this tool generates high-quality synthetic tabular data, enabling organizations to maintain data privacy without compromising utility.
  • Customer Engagement: SAS Customer Intelligence 360 leverages GenAI to streamline marketing activities, offering assistance in audience building, chat interpretation, and email subject line suggestions.

Viya’s GenAI functionality empowers customers to:

  • Accelerate Innovation: Seamlessly integrate GenAI models into decision workflows and existing processes.
  • Protect Data: Ensure user privacy and security with robust data quality measures.
  • Enhance Governance: Utilize built-in tools for model validation and lifecycle management.
  • Make Precise Decisions: Leverage quantitative decisioning capabilities within the Viya platform.

Today’s announcement was made at SAS Innovate, the premier data and AI event for business leaders, technical users, and SAS partners.

Conclusion:

SAS Viya’s continued advancements in generative AI not only drive efficiency and productivity for customers across various industries but also highlight the transformative potential of AI-driven solutions in today’s competitive market landscape. As organizations increasingly prioritize industry-specific applications and ethical AI use cases, SAS stands out as a trusted partner in delivering innovative and pragmatic solutions tailored to meet diverse business needs. This underscores the growing importance of AI-powered analytics in shaping the future of business operations and decision-making processes.

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