IBM, SAP lead cloud-based enterprise AI platform market: GlobalData

Tech giant IBM Corp and business-software maker SAP AG lead the cloud-based enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) platforms market, according to data and analytics firm GlobalData.

The analytics firm said both companies offer a full suite of AI capabilities and features, function- and industry-specific tools, and portfolios that include complementary offers, such as professional services to help customers identify and implement use cases.

“AI deployments range in complexity depending on the details of a particular project or use case. Cloud-based enterprise AI platforms consist of tools and resources that allow enterprises to incorporate cognitive functions into their applications and business processes more easily and quickly,” Rena Bhattacharyya, research director at GlobalData, said.

She added that there are a vast number of potential use cases for such platforms. These may include deployments that improve efficiency and productivity, facilitate better and faster decision-making, uncover relationships in large data sets, and provide more personal, contextualized customer interactions. 

In addition to horizontal applications, such as those that manage sentiment, monitor security or perform sales related projections, AI is also making its way into industry-specific applications, the research director said. Some cases include AI in use by pharmaceutical companies to speed drug development, by financial companies to review loan documentation, and by retailers to suggest product purchases.

Currently, the market is flooded with firms that offer AI-infused solutions or provide AI-centric tools. But according to GlobalData, only a few competitors  such as IBM and SAP provide a complete platform that includes application programming interfaces (APIs), operationalized services, toolkits, libraries and processing power. 

GlobalData studied profiles and reports of AI platforms from companies such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Oracle and Salesforce, apart than IBM and SAP.

“Enterprise AI platforms provide an integrated environment that facilitates the development of AI solutions for a range of audiences. Pre-built solutions are more readily accessible to non-AI specialists, and integrated toolkits, libraries, and resources help streamline deployments for data scientists,” Bhattacharya said.