The independent AI vendor has created a taxonomy for specific industries by building out its AI Cloud platform on which customers can take advantage of industry-specific services.
DataRobot today unveiled AI Cloud for Industries, bringing together industry-tailored AI capabilities and best practices for major industries.
The new offering builds on DataRobot AI cloud, a platform that enables organizations to run the vendor's software on any combination of public clouds and data centers.
Benefit of an industry-focused offering
AI Cloud for Industries is a positive development for customers, said Mike Gualtieri, an analyst at Forrester Research.
They've packaged up all of their industry best practices, sample projects and basically created a taxonomy by industry. It's more of a marketing focus to say, 'Hey look, where we are.'
Mike GualtieriAnalyst, Forrester Research
"They have a lot of customers, and what they've done is they've packaged up all of their industry best practices, sample projects, and basically created a taxonomy by industry," Gualtieri said. "It's more of a marketing focus to say, 'Hey look, where we are.' "
Gualtieri said what DataRobot is really doing with this product is showcasing the different industries in which the Boston-based vendor has been successful in the past.
"The expertise they've gained over the years, they've sort of packaged it up by industry," he said.
According to DataRobot, AI Cloud for industries takes advantage of the vendor's AI expertise to accelerate the implementation of AI systems for banking, retail, manufacturing and healthcare organizations.
DataRobot said it will expand the platform in 2022 to reach customers working in the energy, life sciences, insurance, government, telecommunication and media industries.
Customers can deploy DataRobot AI Cloud on the cloud, data center or at the edge to support requirements for security, data governance and local regulations; integrate with data services and business applications; and access third-party integrations and notebooks that enable users to speed up the process from conception to production of AI projects.
While some other vendors already focus their products and offerings by industries, what differentiates DataRobot's approach is it's putting a name to it, Gualtieri said.
What other vendors tend to do is just say: "'Here's what we do, and here are all these different industries we support,'" he said.
AI Cloud for Industries gives customers an easier entry point, Gualtieri said.
"Instead of customers saying, 'I'm interested in AI generically' … now it gives them a much faster way to determine what DataRobot has to offer them," he said.
The question for customers
Gualtieri said for DataRobot's customers, the question would be how much does using DataRobot AI Cloud for Industries help in terms of saving time.
"It's probably helpful," he said. "It's probably like a lot of other vendors who have solution accelerators. So, it can speed up the process, but it's not a complete application either."
