SAS and NVIDIA partner to show businesses the way to AI
SAS announced a partnership with NVIDIA
last month to help businesses deploy artificial intelligence (AI). The companies
are collaborating across machine learning, computer vision and natural
language processing, with NVIDIA GPUs and CUDA-X AI acceleration
libraries, to support the core elements of SAS' AI offerings – leading
to faster, more accurate insights.
"AI is transforming business across industries," said Gavin Day, SAS Senior VP of Technology. "At the heart of AI-based transformation is advanced analytics. Powerful GPUs help speed the analysis and impact of AI by processing millions of mathematical operations very quickly. By partnering with NVIDIA, we combine our strengths to augment human intelligence and realise the true potential of AI."
In a discussion on data science at NVIDIA's GPU Technology Conference 2019, Day said SAS is talking to customers around the world in major industries, trying to get AI and machine learning out of just being an experiment, and getting it to the mainstream. He said, “You have choice and control – what language, where you want to run it. We want to provide the tools and technology to do that, and the model management capabilities around that."
SAS and NVIDIA are helping customers accelerate their AI efforts in many ways, such as:
"Our collaboration with SAS will help enterprise customers extract the true value of AI for their company," said Ian Buck, VP and GM of Accelerated Computing at NVIDIA. "With NVIDIA technology, businesses will be able to accelerate their entire data science workflow to innovate, add new services and increase profitability."
With expanded NVIDIA GPU support across the cloud-ready SAS Viya analytics platform – including products such as SAS Visual Data Mining and Machine Learning and SAS Event Stream Processing – customers can take advantage of high-performance AI capabilities including image classification, object detection, speech-to-text, image recognition and sentiment detection.
The companies are also pushing deep learning and decision-making capabilities to edge devices, which will drive greater Internet of Things (IoT) opportunities. For example, equipping an edge device like a commercial drone with AI technology will give it the ability to handle everything from infrastructure monitoring to predictive maintenance for industrial plants. With the GPU and analytics built into the drone, analysis can be performed where the data resides. Analysing data in real-time results in faster and more accurate decisions.
The partnership with NVIDIA is a strategic element of SAS' commitment to AI and machine learning.
SAS also announced at the same time that it would invest US$1 billion over the next three years on AI software innovation, education programmes and other resources. The commitment builds on SAS’ already strong foundation in AI, which includes advanced analytics, machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision. Educational programmes and expert services will equip business leaders and data scientists for the future of AI, with the technology, skills and support they need to transform their organisations.
“At SAS, we remain dedicated to our customers and their success, and this investment is another example of that commitment,” said SAS CEO Jim Goodnight.
“With our innovative capabilities in AI, SAS helps businesses deter damaging fraud, fight deadly disease, better manage risk, provide exemplary service to customers and citizens, and much more.”
The investment in AI will focus on three main areas: research and development (R&D) innovation where SAS continues to build on the success of its global AI efforts; education initiatives addressing customer needs to better understand and benefit from AI; and expert services to optimise customer return on AI projects.
"AI is transforming business across industries," said Gavin Day, SAS Senior VP of Technology. "At the heart of AI-based transformation is advanced analytics. Powerful GPUs help speed the analysis and impact of AI by processing millions of mathematical operations very quickly. By partnering with NVIDIA, we combine our strengths to augment human intelligence and realise the true potential of AI."
In a discussion on data science at NVIDIA's GPU Technology Conference 2019, Day said SAS is talking to customers around the world in major industries, trying to get AI and machine learning out of just being an experiment, and getting it to the mainstream. He said, “You have choice and control – what language, where you want to run it. We want to provide the tools and technology to do that, and the model management capabilities around that."
SAS and NVIDIA are helping customers accelerate their AI efforts in many ways, such as:
- Enabling healthcare providers to use object recognition to identify malignant versus benign cancer cells.
- Providing better computer vision for manufacturers, so they can find defects before products leave production lines.
- Facilitating fraud detection to financial institutions.
"Our collaboration with SAS will help enterprise customers extract the true value of AI for their company," said Ian Buck, VP and GM of Accelerated Computing at NVIDIA. "With NVIDIA technology, businesses will be able to accelerate their entire data science workflow to innovate, add new services and increase profitability."
With expanded NVIDIA GPU support across the cloud-ready SAS Viya analytics platform – including products such as SAS Visual Data Mining and Machine Learning and SAS Event Stream Processing – customers can take advantage of high-performance AI capabilities including image classification, object detection, speech-to-text, image recognition and sentiment detection.
The companies are also pushing deep learning and decision-making capabilities to edge devices, which will drive greater Internet of Things (IoT) opportunities. For example, equipping an edge device like a commercial drone with AI technology will give it the ability to handle everything from infrastructure monitoring to predictive maintenance for industrial plants. With the GPU and analytics built into the drone, analysis can be performed where the data resides. Analysing data in real-time results in faster and more accurate decisions.
The partnership with NVIDIA is a strategic element of SAS' commitment to AI and machine learning.
SAS also announced at the same time that it would invest US$1 billion over the next three years on AI software innovation, education programmes and other resources. The commitment builds on SAS’ already strong foundation in AI, which includes advanced analytics, machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision. Educational programmes and expert services will equip business leaders and data scientists for the future of AI, with the technology, skills and support they need to transform their organisations.
“At SAS, we remain dedicated to our customers and their success, and this investment is another example of that commitment,” said SAS CEO Jim Goodnight.
“With our innovative capabilities in AI, SAS helps businesses deter damaging fraud, fight deadly disease, better manage risk, provide exemplary service to customers and citizens, and much more.”
The investment in AI will focus on three main areas: research and development (R&D) innovation where SAS continues to build on the success of its global AI efforts; education initiatives addressing customer needs to better understand and benefit from AI; and expert services to optimise customer return on AI projects.
The R&D initiative will have a
special focus on making it easy for users with different skill levels
to benefit – from business experts to data engineers to data scientists.
SAS is embedding AI capabilities into the SAS Platform and solutions
for data management, customer intelligence, fraud and security
intelligence as well as risk management, in addition to applications for industries
including financial services, government, health care, manufacturing
and retail.
SAS continues to partner with innovative companies and leading technology providers like Accenture, Cisco, Deloitte, Intel and NVIDIA. This work brings the latest advances and practices in AI and machine learning to customers, and ensures SAS AI technologies perform optimally in customers’ hardware and cloud environments.
“The reason SAS tops the revenue list for advanced analytics for the last five years is that SAS solutions are built on a foundation of machine learning and deep knowledge of analytics. These are part of SAS’ DNA,” said Dave Schubmehl, Research Director for Artificial Intelligence at IDC.
“Combining SAS’ knowledge and technology with its continued push to innovate in computer vison, natural language processing (NLP) and deep learning will drive further adoption of AI across multiple industries. And it will help companies interested in AI – whether early in their AI and analytics life cycle or more mature.
The customer education and development initiatives, such as the new SAS AI Accelerator Program, will focus on helping organisations and professionals get AI-ready at any level. SAS will offer:
Customers using SAS AI and machine learning include:
*NVIDIA sponsored transport and accommodation to GTC.
SAS continues to partner with innovative companies and leading technology providers like Accenture, Cisco, Deloitte, Intel and NVIDIA. This work brings the latest advances and practices in AI and machine learning to customers, and ensures SAS AI technologies perform optimally in customers’ hardware and cloud environments.
“The reason SAS tops the revenue list for advanced analytics for the last five years is that SAS solutions are built on a foundation of machine learning and deep knowledge of analytics. These are part of SAS’ DNA,” said Dave Schubmehl, Research Director for Artificial Intelligence at IDC.
“Combining SAS’ knowledge and technology with its continued push to innovate in computer vison, natural language processing (NLP) and deep learning will drive further adoption of AI across multiple industries. And it will help companies interested in AI – whether early in their AI and analytics life cycle or more mature.
The customer education and development initiatives, such as the new SAS AI Accelerator Program, will focus on helping organisations and professionals get AI-ready at any level. SAS will offer:
- Tailored curricula to help organisations improve their AI skills. This will include e-learning like the SAS Academy for Data Science, and in-person training in AI technologies, best practices and more.
- Certification programmes that help analytics professionals and data scientists earn the SAS Certified Professional in AI and Machine Learning credential.
- The SAS Analytics Center of Excellence, which hosts a group of PhDs and advanced experts in AI, machine learning, NLP, computer vision, optimisation, simulation and related data science skills. These SAS experts are dedicated to supporting customer AI implementations.
Customers using SAS AI and machine learning include:
- Connexions Loyalty, which has an office in Hong Kong – works with top brands on customer-loyalty programmes serving more than 200 million people worldwide. The company relies on a SAS AI-powered personalisation engine to better market to and improve the loyalty of its clients’ customers.
- Daiwa Securities – created a SAS AI-powered recommendation system for its sales representatives. The system analyses and predicts changes for each customer, recommending the most suitable product or appropriate follow-up messages to engage customers and reduce churn.
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