Artificial intelligence, big data and European upstream industries: what now?

“The EU needs to become the master of digital” said Lucilla Sioli, Director for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Industry of DG CONNECT at a recent event moderated by Cefic as part of the Knowledge4Innovation Summit. “Digital must be implemented in all companies of all industries” she continued.

“Digital technologies are essential to mitigating climate change, moving toward a circular economy and all the while remaining competitive” said Pierre Barthélemy, Cefic’s Executive Director of Research and Innovation. “As we show in our Mid-Century Vision, artificial intelligence will be essential for research and innovation to reach circular economy goals, to increase resource and energy efficiency, and for creating interconnections across network plants, industries and municipalities”.

At the moment, Europe is already behind in critical technologies dominated by the US and China, while those regions and others also have an edge in science, technical, engineering and math education for the next generation. “If we want Europe to have a leading role, we need access to data, a legislative framework, access to funding (such as Horizon Europe), a digital single market, and we need to fill the skills gap” explains Susana Solis Perez, Member of the European Parliament.

The chemical industry welcomes the support from the EU institutions for R&I actions, incentives for process industries to increase their future productivity in the EU and for the EU, and investment in digital skills. As Maria da Graça Carvalho, Member of the European Parliament said, to achieve this “collaboration is key”.