Having access to reliable, instantaneous data is an important element of a healthy business, according to Elena Avesani, global sustainability director and head of global sustainability strategy at Oracle.

Speaking at the Farnborough International Airshow, she said: “One of the challenges is that data is not available.

“Most of the time, even large organisations are struggling to collect relevant environmental and social KPIs because the data is not in the IT system to begin with.

“They’re collected via Excel and multiple Excels coming from multiple functions within the organisation. So you don’t have data at your fingertips.

“So you can’t take advantage of AI capabilities to manage your supply chain.”

Big data, machine learning and AI

Asked about big data, machine learning and AI, Keric Morris, executive partner, enterprise strategy global energy and sustainability lead, at IBM, said: “There’s a huge role to play because at the end of the day, most of the issues that we’re facing here are actually data points of some ilk.

“So if I’m getting into supply chain I need to know where it’s coming from, how it’s being made, and all the elements which are then part of that.”

Morris and Avesani spoke at the Aerospace Global Forum on the panel, ‘Ecosystems Thinking – Hyper-Scaling For Change’, which was led by CIONET.

The session saw industry leaders from various sectors, including space, energy, retail, start-ups, technology government, and academia discuss how to exploit technology as a key enabler to drive ESG goals.

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