It's no surprise that of the 20 biggest AI
companies in the world, no conglomerates are listed. Burdened by
legacy business lines, technologies, and organizational structures
as well as silos, these companies have struggled to stay abreast of
the fast-evolving AI landscape.
Yet there is massive potential for conglomerates that can seize
the AI opportunity lying before them. After all, the size and
diversity of their potential data sources, as well as their current
financial strength, gives them a natural competitive advantage
– not only do they typically own this data, but they can
implement it in ways that drive insights across their various
business lines.
For that to happen, however, conglomerates will need to break
down such organizational silos that prevent the fluid flow,
sharing, and use of such information. A well-known engineering
conglomerate, for instance, has different AI applications in their
healthcare unit, but could do more to capitalize on that
