Shulou(Shulou.com)06/03 Report--

McKinsey made an important finding in the Frontier of artificial Intelligence report that AI has great potential to contribute to global economic activity. AI is not a single technology, but a series of technologies, including computer vision, natural language, virtual assistant, robot process automation and advanced machine learning. The report predicts that by 2030, about 70 per cent of companies will adopt at least one AI technology, but less than half may have absorbed all five technologies. At that time, AI will contribute US $13 trillion to the global economy, driving GDP growth by about 16%.

As a general underlying technology, AI knocks on the door of the industry, which has become the consensus of the academic and industrial circles. Even among all kinds of human technologies, AI deserves to be the one most likely to promote the fourth industrial revolution of mankind. Today, when China is in urgent need of industrial innovation channels, the value and potential of AI to B have been magnified unprecedented in history.

(Robin Li, chairman and CEO of Baidu, said that the deep integration of Cloud + AI is an important move in the context of Baidu's promotion of AI industrialization and leading the wave of industrial intelligence.)

But how should AI to B be realized from scratch, from shallow to deep? It is a problem that needs to be explored in the fog. This problem experienced a very obvious growth from recessive to dominant in 2019. The enterprise service market opened with cloud computing as the main body has completed a large number of enterprise demand-oriented cases of AI in one year. At the same time, the infrastructure of the whole cloud + AI industry is more mature and the market experience is more abundant, which builds a solid foundation for AI to B to continue to open.

Above the clouds, when AI comes, the wind blows. Standing at the end of 2019 to discuss this change, the first thing you may want to know is how Baidu's AI to B is now.

In fact, as an important carrier of Baidu's toB business, the AI capability of Baidu Smart Cloud is in the leading position in many related data reports. Similarly, in 2019, under the guidance of the "cloud + AI" strategy, Baidu's exploration of firmly promoting the landing of AI to a wide range of vertical areas has attracted wide industry attention.

So, what on earth built Baidu Intelligent Cloud as a public cloud manufacturer, an industrial highland in the AI field? What factors can make Baidu maintain rapid growth in the field of toB business?

In this paper, from the strategy, technology and solutions, market promotion, and then to the logic of industrial trends, from the origin to review the landing of Baidu AI 2019, how to cut open a wide range of AI to B problems.

In the process of accelerating industrial intelligence, Baidu completed a series of evolution on the road of cloud + AI this year.

Jian Yi: the confluence of Cloud and AI

A clear thinking and a solid strategy is a prerequisite for the systematic integration of AI technologies and solutions into public cloud services. Compared with the major manufacturers, cloud-based and AI-supplemented strategy, Baidu completed the merger and upgrading of cloud and AI systems based on a series of strategic anchoring and architecture adjustments in 2019, laying the foundation for a series of to B market exploration.

In December 2018, Baidu announced that Baidu Intelligent Cloud Business Division (ACU) was upgraded to Intelligent Cloud Enterprise Group (ACG), focusing resources on "fighting big battles and fighting hard battles". This tough battle obviously corresponds to Baidu's rise in the to B market in the following year. This architectural upgrade can also be seen as the origin of the 2019 story.

Since then, under Baidu's overall strategy, Baidu Smart Cloud has determined its strategic position step by step, completed the convergence with AI technology system, introduced the advantages of AI technology into cloud computing service system, and launched an offensive against to B market.

On July 3rd, at the 2019 Baidu AI developer Conference, Cloud + AI became the main theme. Baidu Smart Cloud established the position of industrial intelligent export in Baidu's AI strategy. At this point, Baidu became the first cloud service provider to establish and continuously promote the cloud + AI strategy, thus occupying the absolute initiative in the surging wave of industrial intelligence.

On August 29th, at the 2019 Baidu Cloud Summit with the theme of "INDUSTRIALIZE", Baidu Smart Cloud put forward the world's first formula for the industrialization of artificial intelligence: artificial intelligence industrialization = (intelligent computing * intelligent applications) ^ intelligent ecology, and released 20 cloud service products and solutions for AI applications in one breath. This node establishes how Baidu leads the industrialization trend of AI in the industry, and how to implement the AI landing problem, and integrates the strategy into the product and solution system, and really launches a fierce attack on the AI to B market.

On September 2, Baidu issued an internal letter to upgrade the "cloud + AI" strategy, announcing the integration of Baidu intelligent cloud and CTO system, and the status of smart cloud has been promoted several times in a year. This upgrade means that Baidu AI technology system and cloud system have been pulled through, and cloud and AI have been merged within Baidu system. At this point, Baidu Cloud and AI fully converge, forming a solid structure of the underlying technical capabilities accumulated during the implementation of the TG strategy to input to the cloud, Baidu brain output technology capabilities to accelerate the commercialization of technology, and Baidu intelligent cloud leading to industrial landing, formally merging the value of cloud with the AI system, forming a logical clear, complete output system.

The continuous upgrading and clarity of strategy, falling into the actual product, has become the other side of Baidu Smart Cloud 2019: to create a complete cloud convergence infrastructure for AI applications.

(Baidu CTO Wang Haifeng said that at present, AI technology has entered the stage of industrial production, and intelligent cloud, as a carrier, can promote the landing of AI and speed up the process of industrial intelligence.)

Casting Sword: Baidu locks AI to B Industrial Infrastructure

According to the IDC MarketScape:2019 China AI Cloud Market Vendor Evaluation report released by market research company IDC on November 28th, Baidu Smart Cloud excels in AI technology, market and business, and occupies a leading position in the leadership quadrant in terms of capability and strategy.

Behind the achievements, it is not only Baidu Intelligent Cloud that relies on the technological advantages of Baidu AI to form a high fight. Under the support of basic computing power and data, Baidu brain takes Flying Propeller Deep Learning platform as the basic technology base, and opens up all the processes related to the landing of industrial applications of artificial intelligence, including deep learning platform, general AI capability, customized training platform, deployment and integration, and application technology solutions. At the same time, there is a complete AI security system guarantee, realizing the standardization, automation and modularization of AI technology.

(as a combination of years of accumulation of AI technology and industrial practice, Baidu brain has realized the integration and innovation of AI algorithm, computing architecture and application scenarios, and has become a "hardware and software AI production platform".)

Another key point is that Baidu has accelerated the construction of cloud, data, 5G, blockchain and other technologies and AI integration infrastructure, so that AI into enterprise applications with complete solution feasibility. In 2019, Baidu Intelligent Cloud is a comprehensive upgrade to complete the six major engineering platforms, so that AI capabilities can form a comprehensive effect of technology, and really go deep into the B-end market through engineering solutions. In the real industry scenario, enterprises have three distinct application requirements based on public cloud application AI capabilities:

1. Diversified scenarios and cloud-edge integration requirements: in the AI era, enterprises need to ensure that cloud, edge and end scenarios have sufficient AI computing power, so that data can flow freely and AI capabilities can be widely invoked, which makes cloud service providers have to provide corresponding computing and data infrastructure in each scenario.

2. Industrial-level Internet of things system requirements: when Cloud + AI enters the industry, it must be able to use industry-level application load intensity, including low latency response, big data carrying capacity, large-scale concurrency, and so on. This requires cloud service vendors to build industry-level AI infrastructure.

3. Pre-integrated applications in vertical industries and technology scenarios: since different industries need different solutions and vertical capabilities for AI, cloud service providers also need to provide AI solutions that can adapt to different industries and enterprises with different technical capabilities, so as to enter the vertical market.

In the face of these three requirements, Baidu Intelligent Cloud accelerates the full scene coverage, flexibility, cost-effective, security compliance and simple operation and maintenance of cloud computing infrastructure, making the construction of cloud base more in line with the characteristics of AI applications. So far, Baidu Smart Cloud has released more than 260 products and nearly 40 solutions to help various industries achieve intelligent transformation. Cloud + AI technology system is combined with IoT, blockchain and edge computing to build an one-stop service system for finance, Internet video, industrial manufacturing and other industries.

In Baidu intelligent cloud system, a comprehensive cloud + AI product system has been formed, such as intelligent edge, cloud full-function AI chip, secure storage, one-stop solution, etc., covering computing, storage, network, database, middleware, server, security and other fields, with 228 AI capabilities output in full form.

(Yin Shiming, vice president of Baidu and general manager of smart cloud business group: artificial intelligence is entering the process of industrialization.)

AI walked into the gap of the industry, just like a house can not only have a beam skeleton, but also need bricks and tiles, furniture and household appliances. In this year, Baidu Intelligent Cloud created a perfect and meticulous construction for the room of AI to B in the technology and solution system represented by cloud services. Now when an enterprise re-enters the AI world, what it sees is no longer a few pieces of wood, but a gorgeous house.

In order to make the blade of AI extremely sharp, Baidu Intelligent Cloud has created a solid, reliable, intelligent and targeted cloud service system. Combine cloud and AI into one, and AI to B's sword will be forged successfully.

Try the sword: the industry channel matures rapidly

After the rapid iteration of strategic and technology solutions, Baidu Smart Cloud also attaches more importance to the ability to use AI services market and move into real industrial space in 2019. After a large number of case construction and industrial cooperation, the breadth, depth and ecological tolerance of Baidu smart cloud in the AI service enterprise market have been significantly improved in this year. Baidu Smart Cloud, which has entered the industrial world, is like a boy looking for Ganoderma lucidum in Castle Peak. After seeing thousands of rivers and mountains, he now knows the great rivers in his heart.

From Baidu Smart Cloud's to B customer list, we can clearly see these three characteristics:

1. To achieve extensive industrial coverage. Cloud + AI can embrace three major industrial scenarios, Internet industry applications, and special applications composed of intelligent video, forming the most comprehensive AI to B industry coverage structure.

In the service case of Baidu Smart Cloud, disease and pest monitoring maps were generated in real time in the agricultural field, resulting in a 50% reduction in pesticide use by farmers. In the field of industrial manufacturing, there is also a combination of intensive research science and technology and micro-billion intelligent manufacturing team to create intelligent quality inspection equipment to solve the pain points detected mainly by "naked eye + magnifying glass" in the past, while greatly reducing a large number of high repetitive and high-frequency work of quality inspectors, to achieve cost reduction and efficiency, and the return on investment of equipment has reached 6.5 times that of traditional models. Baidu Intelligent Cloud has confirmed that AI plays an important role in all industries, which lays a prerequisite for the mature development of to B.

2. Baidu Intelligent Cloud fully demonstrates the ability to call AI to solve the core problems in the production scene, so that AI can not only be used as a surface application, but also go deep into all locations of the B-end market.

Many people believe that for enterprises, AI only stays in the surface applications represented by intelligent video, and it is difficult to go deep into the core applications of the industry, but Baidu Smart Cloud has proved that AI can be systematic, structured and deeply into the core needs of the industry, and become the main solution for productivity upgrading. For example, in the Yalong River "Intelligent +" hydropower station system, Baidu Intelligent Cloud helps the Yalong River hydropower layout in three aspects: "ubiquitous perception", "edge computing" and "power brain", realizing operation and maintenance and production scene upgrading, such as unattended, intelligent equipment maintenance, intelligent prediction and intelligent dispatching, so that multiple capabilities of the hydropower station system are upgraded in an all-round way, realizing a high degree of integration of AI and industry. In the field of meteorology, Chongqing Meteorological Bureau uses cloud + AI to make "providence" no longer unpredictable through the "intelligent meteorology" system jointly created by Baidu Intelligent Cloud. The prediction accuracy within two hours has increased by 40%, and the sending time of disaster weather warning information in the summer of 2019 has increased from the original two hours to 9 minutes to help citizens avoid disasters earlier.

3. Fully respect the particularity of industry applications, provide perfect solutions and services, so that different enterprise users can fully meet the needs of the industry.

The to B service case of Baidu Smart Cloud can not only accommodate representative large-scale government and enterprises, but also go deep into specific cases of various industries and regions, provide targeted AI services, provide intelligent evolution for many vertical industries, and achieve the combination of implementation and refinement. For example, at the Baidu AI developer Conference in July 2019, Baidu Intelligent Cloud United Pudong Development Bank launched Xiaopu, the first "digital human" employee in the financial sector. With her professional financial knowledge and deep understanding of users' needs, she brings brand-new services to customers. At the site of the 2019 Baidu Yunzhi Summit, Baidu Intelligent Cloud announced the opening of the digital human platform, hoping to enable more industries to customize their own digital people, to help enterprises build a brand IP, to serve tens of millions of people with one person, and to achieve the progress of digital people from 1 to N.

(Baidu Smart Cloud has opened the digital human platform to various industries, from left to right are Xiaopu of Pudong Development Bank, China Unicom Digital people, thepaper.cn AI anchor Xiao Fei, and China Mobile online Diaowa.)

Partners are an important reliable force in Baidu's intelligent cloud to promote the solid landing of AI and the conquest of toB in the field. On December 18, at the annual ceremony of Baidu Intelligent Cloud Channel Ecology, Yin Shiming admitted that in the process of artificial intelligence promoting industrialization, it is very important to rely on ecological partners to achieve the power upgrade of intelligent ecology. this will help us to industrialize all aspects of artificial intelligence together.

Today, Baidu Smart Cloud can skillfully use the advantage of "cloud + AI" to help partners solve practical problems. Under the dismantling of various industry problems, the industry market channel of AI to B has matured one after another, which provides the possibility for the model explosion.

Sword Dance: 2020, the Wind rises Smart China

Robin Li has said before that artificial intelligence, even if it only focuses on a key link and solves a pain point, is a huge industrial opportunity, and it will also bring a better life experience to each of us. Bigger and deeper changes will take place in industry.

This is an accurate description of the relationship between intelligent technology and the industrial world today. In 2019, we can see that Baidu has made great progress in the to B market in terms of ideas, capabilities and cases, and this market is being fully opened. At this point, you can see the next journey of Baidu in exploring the route of intelligent China. Three major trends mark the development direction of Baidu in 2020:

1. The intelligence of vertical industry will emerge as a great opportunity.

2. Cloud + AI+IoT, a high-level intelligent solution will appear, which will lead to a qualitative change in the AI to B market.

3, 5G will continue to promote the growth of the AI to B market, Baidu intelligent cloud ushered in another historic node.

Generally speaking, the overall situation of China's economy in 2020 will further strengthen the ability to improve the quality and efficiency of AI technology. Multi-technology collaboration, 5G, and vertical industry imagination constitute the jump node in this field.

Looking back on this year, Baidu has made a lot of achievements in the convergence of cloud and AI, overcome many difficulties, and gained more than AI, such as the experience of dialogue with Qianhang Wanye, the trust of partners, the history and sense of social responsibility of promoting social development and industrial revitalization with cloud + AI.

AI to B, the curtain of the times has just begun. During the year, intelligent China gradually changed from an idea to a reality; the explorer set out in the dark at night and came to sing in the rising sun.

It is time for smart China to rise in the wind. Recently, Beijing has drifted with heavy snow that has not been seen for a long time. Auspicious snow harvest years, this snow may also be given to the intelligent expectations and promises of China's industry.

2020 is a good time for AI.

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