Friday, 10.50 - 11.35, HFB|B

The Rise of Artificial Intelligence in Forecasting? Hype vs real world Success Stories

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have become household names, hot topics avidly pushed by the media, with companies like Facebook, Google and Uber promising disruptive breakthroughs from speech recognition to self driving cars and fully-automatic predictive maintenance. However, in the forecasting world, reality looks very different. An industry survey of 200+ companies shows that despite substantial growth of available data, most companies still rely on human expertise or employ very basic statistical algorithms from the 1960s, with even market leaders slow to adopt advanced algorithms to enhance forecasting and demand planning decisions. This reveals a huge gap between scientific innovations and industry capabilities, with opportunities to gain unprecedented market intelligence being missed.

In this session, we will highlight examples of how industry thought leaders have successfully implemented artificial Neural Networks and advanced Machine Learning algorithms for forecasting, including FMCG Manufacturer Beiersdorf, Beer Manufacturers Anheuser Bush InBev, and Container Shipping line Hapag-Lloyd. I will leave you with a vision not of the future, but of what’s happening now, and how it can enhance supply chain and logistics planning.

Key learnings:

• What Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are, how they work, and their relevance to forecasting
• Real case studies of AI and ML algorithms employed by leading manufacturers
• The power of forecasting algorithms that learn, adapt to context and find hidden insights

Sven F. Crone is an Assistant Professor in Management Science at Lancaster University, UK, where his research on business forecasting and time series data mining has received over 40 scientific publications and international awards for developing novel forecasting algorithms. As the co-director of the Lancaster Research Centre for Forecasting, one with 15 members the largest research units dedicated to business forecasting, he and his team regularly take state-of-the-art forecasting research and apply it in corporate practice. He has trained over 500 corporate demand planners, and consulted with industry leaders on improving forecasting methods, systems and processes. Sven is also a regular keynote speaker at academic and practitioner conferences, sharing insights from hands-on consultancy projects on research in artificial intelligence and machine learning for FMCG/CPG, Call Centres and Energy Markets.