PCI first began covering digitalization in the coatings industry in 2016 when companies began making commitments to a digital future - developing digital business units and appointing chief digital officers. By 2018, initial digital processes improved the interaction between companies and customers, streamlined and simplified day-to-day work, and improved visualization and training. Lab notebooks and formulas were digitized, digital calculators for formulations and CO₂ were introduced, and Big Data was a common term we were beginning to use in our industry.

By 2019, a small number of coatings manufacturers and their suppliers began incorporating cloud software to accelerate chemistry development, sales and service. The software creates customizable lab notebooks that are designed for chemistry and make it easy to capture all test plans, products, trial formulas, chemical structures, test results and lab reports in a structured and searchable database. With an integrated digital lab, companies can connect data from lab instruments and other software into a lab notebook automatically to speed execution in the lab, reduce manual data entry, and ensure correct procedures are followed at all times. Sales and services collaboration tools accelerate the commercialization of formulas by keeping everyone involved in the development, sales and service processes up to date, and automating many of the back-and-forth steps between teams.

These forward-thinking companies could now collect all of their formula and test data digitally, automate processes between lab, sales and service teams, and build up the high-quality dataset they would need for AI-driven predictive chemistry in the future.

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The first time I heard the term “AI” in reference to our industry was at the 2019 European Coatings Show, where Evonik unveiled COATINO™, an AI-powered, voice-controlled digital lab assistant that understood coatings-specific vocabulary and provided instant access to the company’s additives solutions. This was truly innovative and was a glimpse into the future of what AI could bring to the world of coatings.

For the next five years, PCI published articles, recorded podcasts and dedicated two expert-led panel discussions at our Coatings Trends & Technologies (CTT) Summit on the subject of digital transformation, and how, with these tools, companies were building the dataset needed for future AI-driven predictive chemistries and processes.

It is now time to see how AI can unlock entirely new opportunities and business models for enterprise R&D organizations. PCI is excited to reveal some real-world successes of AI-enabled coatings innovation during our keynote panel discussion at this year’s CTT Summit. This panel discussion explores how top innovators decided that their data was good enough to begin using AI, and how they are using it to reimagine their R&D and product development, capture and transfer knowledge from retiring experts to new chemists, improve outcomes for their customers and supply chain partners, and much more. Our panelists include Ken Kisner, Albert Invent; Bryan Haltom, DyStar; Dheev Arulmani, Valdera; Alex Gardiner, Proleit by Schneider Electric; and Paul Snowwhite, Applied Molecules.

The discussion is taking place as this September issue of PCI deploys, so if you didn’t attend the CTT Summit to see it live, you can register to watch it on demand for free, here. You won’t want to miss it!

In years past, technology companies stressed the importance of jumping on the digitalization/AI bandwagon. The real-world examples of increased efficiency, speed and customer trust that are shared during our panel discussion make it clear that digitalization and AI are becoming foundational tools in staying competitive.