Focus on ICT49 projects to facilitate the implementation of AI solutions in SMEs

On January 10, 2019, the European Commission launched the AI4EU (Artificial Intelligence for the European Union) project aiming to boost Europe's technological and industrial capacity, strengthen its industrial competitiveness and accelerate the adoption of AI across its economy. As part of this project, the AI-On-Demand (AIOD) platform has been developed, six ICT-49 consortia have been created, aiming to facilitate the implementation of AI solutions based on this platform. By 2021, less than half of European companies reported having adopted AI, with few having implemented it due to a lack of skills including ML modeling, data science and engineering, and the necessary funding. Europe, which is undeniably lagging behind the US and China in the AI market, has launched the AI4EU project in 2019 to position itself in this market, particularly with applications for science and industry. The objective of this three-year project was to federate the AI ecosystem in Europe to foster the sharing, use and valorization of new solutions in structuring areas of the European economy such as robotics, health, media, agriculture, new sensors (IoT) and cybersecurity. The initial AI4EU project ended at the end of 2021, however the platform continues to be supported by the six ICT49 projects aiming to facilitate the implementation of AI solutions by focusing on different challenges: AI4Copernicus, AIPlan4EU, BonsAPPS, DIH4AI, I-NERGY, DIH4AI and StairwAI. These projects are funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 framework program for research and innovation.

The six ICT49 projects

AIPlan4EU aim to integrate AI planning into the European AIOD platform and make it applicable by all, including for agile manufacturing, agribusiness or logistics. AI4Copernicus aims to connect artificial intelligence to the world of Earth observation by making the AI on-demand platform the digital environment of choice for Copernicus data users, researchers and innovators. BonsAPPs provides end-to-end, containerized, ready-to-integrate, and reusable solutions and covers experimentation, benchmarking, deployment, and secure licensing of deep-edge AI solutions, such as the AI embedded in all of our everyday smart devices. DIH4AI focuses on the creation and networking of DIH-driven regional on-demand AI platforms linked to the pan-European AI4EU toolkit and experimental facility and will create a critical mass of AI services and seamless operation. I-NERGY supports on-demand AI in the energy sector by capitalizing on AI, IoT, semantics, federated learning, and advanced analytics tools, which leverage cross-sectoral AI-based sovereignty and interoperable data processing preserving regulation. I-NERGY is also working on the evolution, scaling and demonstration of innovative AI-as-a-Service (AIaaS) energy analytics applications and digital twin services. StairwAI is a springboard to AI for SMEs, it aims to facilitate the engagement of low-tech SMEs on the AIOD platform, matching SMEs with assets, experts, tools and Materials. Translated from Focus sur les projets ICT49 visant à faciliter la mise en œuvre de solutions d'IA au sein des PME