At the recent HUAWEI CONNECT 2024, Zhang Ping’an, executive director of the Board of Huawei and CEO of Huawei Cloud, emphasised the importance of adopting an “AI-native” mindset for enterprises worldwide.
In his keynote speech, titled “Thrive with the Cloud: Reshaping Industries with AI,” the Huawei Cloud CEO discussed the significance of seizing opportunities in the “intelligent era” and using artificial intelligence to build competitive advantages.
AI-native mindset: At its core
The concept of an AI-native mindset suggests a fundamental shift in how businesses approach their operations and strategy. It implies not just implementing AI technologies as add-ons to existing processes but also reimagining business models and workflows with AI at their core.
As AI technologies advance, companies that proactively integrate these tools into their core operations may find themselves better positioned to innovate and compete in an increasingly digital marketplace.
For Australian manufacturers and other industries, this means rethinking everything from supply chain management to product development through an AI-centric lens.
According to Ping’an, adopting an AI-native mindset comes in four key steps.
Step 1: Embracing AI and developing enterprise AI platforms
Ping’an emphasizes that enterprises should actively embrace AI, open up industry scenarios and develop enterprise AI platforms. This approach enables AI to serve their core business effectively.
For businesses worldwide, this can mean identifying key areas where AI can improve efficiency or product quality and even preparing the workforce for AI integration through training and upskilling.
Step 2: Building AI-native cloud infrastructure
Ping’an asserts that enterprises must develop AI-native cloud infrastructure tailored to their specific needs. The CEO then introduced CloudMatrix, a system designed to interconnect and pool diverse computing sources, including CPUs, NPUs, DPUs, and memory.
In terms of manufacturing, this suggests the importance for business leaders to reassess the current IT infrastructure and consider scalable, AI-ready cloud solutions.
Step 3: Establishing knowledge-centric data foundations
To leverage AI capabilities fully, enterprises must establish knowledge-centric data foundations. Huawei Cloud has addressed this need by upgrading its DataArts platform, offering customers AI-oriented and knowledge-centric data infrastructure. This underscores the importance of not just collecting data, but also ensuring its quality, accessibility and integration into AI systems.
Step 4: Building suitable AI models for business applications
This step focuses on developing AI models that are precisely tailored to specific business applications. Ping’an challenges the common misconception that larger AI models are inherently superior, emphasising that a one-size-fits-all approach using a single foundation model is impractical for addressing diverse business needs. To illustrate this point, he highlighted Huawei’s Pangu Models 5.0, which are available in a range of sizes with parameters scaling from billions to trillions. This versatile series is designed to meet a wide spectrum of business application requirements.
What AI-native mindset means for Australian manufacturers
An AI-native mindset is not merely about adopting new technologies. It is about fostering a culture of continuous adaptation and learning. As AI continues to evolve rapidly, the question for Australian manufacturers is no longer whether they should embrace AI but how quickly and effectively they can integrate it into their core operations.
