Singtel, Hitachi Digital collaborate for AI-powered Industry 4.0

Singtel and Hitachi Digital have initiated a new partnership aimed at expediting enterprise digital transformation. The collaboration will harness Hitachi’s extensive expertise in AI alongside Singtel’s Paragon platform, which offers orchestration capabilities for 5G, edge computing, and cloud services.

Hitachi Digital intends to implement Singtel’s Paragon platform at the Hitachi Americas Santa Clara R&D Labs. This will be followed by a pilot programme in a U.S. factory focusing on Industry 4.0 use cases. The primary objective is to assess how well Hitachi’s AI applications can operate within the Paragon ecosystem. Areas of focus will include quality assurance, workplace safety, immersive training, and pre-emptive maintenance. Additionally, the trial will facilitate integrating Paragon with Hitachi’s industry cloud applications and digital services, moving enterprises past the constraints of complex, low-latency connectivity and productivity challenges.

Bill Chang, CEO of Singtel’s Digital InfraCo, remarked, “Enterprises in the fast-growing Industry 4.0 sector depend on high quality, reliable connectivity to ensure smooth operations. We are pleased to collaborate with Hitachi Digital, leveraging Paragon to manage its connectivity and cloud needs across Hitachi’s manufacturing facilities. Integrating Hitachi’s advanced AI applications with Paragon’s ecosystem will enhance our suite of solutions for manufacturing enterprises and enable them to seamlessly transform their operations powered by AI.”

Frank Antonysamy, Chief Growth Officer at Hitachi Digital, commented, “Hitachi has invested heavily in combining decades of digital, data, cloud, AI, cybersecurity, and connectivity expertise to establish transformative solutions for Industry Cloud deployments. Our applications and consulting services in this area have been an integral part of the digitalisation movement impacting businesses around the world. We anticipate that this partnership with Singtel will enable us to once again increase the capabilities of next-gen technologies in enterprise environments, enabling a new level of productivity for customers.”

The partnership aims to utilise Hitachi’s pre-built Industrial AI applications in conjunction with the network and multi-cloud orchestration capabilities of the Paragon platform. This synergy will produce various Paragon-related service offerings designed to enhance and accelerate clients' cloud operations. Hitachi Digital Services will subsequently bring these offerings to market as a Singtel Paragon authorised System Integrator.

Industrial organisations frequently encounter difficulties with 5G deployments due to intricate and fragmented solutions. The additional complexity introduced by AI adoption in these scenarios exacerbates the challenges. Singtel’s Paragon platform provides a unified solution, enabling organisations to connect with the 5G network and deploy edge computing and AI securely and swiftly on telecommunications infrastructure. This aims to reduce time-to-market and shorten the innovation curve significantly.

The collaboration is set to deliver interoperable solutions paired with expert delivery services. This integration is expected to benefit organisations aiming to navigate the complexities associated with industrial AI.