While there are challenges inherent in applying artificial intelligence, as experienced AI optimists, Hexagon believes it plays a crucial role in democratising access to technology. Empowering more people and enabling more industries by making physical data actionable back in the real world.
Developing domain-specific AI products
Hexagon have been working seriously to incorporate AI into their solutions since 2012, building on earlier work with machine learning. Hexagon’s platforms are built for sharing data between sensors, software, and ecosystems, to turn that data into insights with algorithms and AI working in harmony.
Hexagon have embedded AI capabilities directly into their hardware and software. From AI at the edge, literally in the chips and graphic processing units in systems like scanners and total stations; to deep learning in their processing software that turns large point clouds and images into meaningful semantic models, by identifying, segmenting, removing and much more.
Hexagon take a pragmatic, use-case driven approach to AI, leveraging partnerships, their own data, and a mix of custom and pre-trained models to drive innovation across their solutions. Hexagon operates at the intersections of multiple industrial domains, so open-source AI models from academia and hyperscalers - like Microsoft and Google - informed the strategy but could only take them so far.
As technologies like deep-learning emerged, Hexagon knew that serving customers in an AI-driven future necessitated training models with their unique datasets to develop domain-specific solutions, purpose-built to solve the challenges of their own business and those of customers.
Training AI models on reality
Hexagon are in a unique position to develop digital reality AI because of their access to extensive reality datasets from Hexagon sensors, which are invaluable for training AI models in areas like point cloud classification. The unmatched blend of precision sensors and software enable them to focus on the value within that data directly. For example, in Building Information Modelling (BIM), AI can drastically reduce the time to get to a BIM model - a digital twin - from data collected with mobile handheld scanners like the Leica BLK2GO.
Hexagon newly launched solution, Aura, exemplifies this best-of-both-worlds approach, applying their AI expertise in reality capture to the world of aesthetic medicine. The Aura product includes 13 cameras which can capture a digital twin of a person’s face with a single shot. This digital twin is then analysed by an AI model trained on data to give dimensionally accurate insight into all kinds of features. The domain-specific AI embedded into Hexagon’s products is a key differentiator and is due to the hybrid nature of their approach.
This hybrid approach further drives Hexagon to fuse generative AI models, such as language and multi-modal foundation models, into industry specific use-cases as diverse as manufacturing, construction and public safety.
Building an AI-enabled company
Building a truly AI-enabled enterprise requires far more than simply using AI. It demands a comprehensive strategy coupled with an ‘AI mindset’, developed across workforce by piloting new technologies and assessing the results before implementing broader rollout. Many new AI based capabilities arise at a fast pace. To properly assess their value, Hexagon further extend data-centric decision-making processes.
To embed AI into work, Hexagon examined how it could enhance internal functions like sales, marketing, operations and more. They explored how their service engineers, for example, could use AI to rapidly find and retrieve the documentation they needed, or how marketers could locate the perfect images for campaigns from databases through AI’s powers of classification, or how developers can write AI-assisted code.
Hexagon’s strategy encompasses spreading out AI throughout their company in multiple divisions. Hexagon operates in a hub and spoke model, where the increased use of AI is not bound to one team and entity. It rather focuses on having low to high-risk AI projects taking place within the different functions of their business - the spokes - and project managers coming together to discuss their learnings at a hub level.
AI research and AI engineering specialists within Hexagon ensure AI is optimally integrated into Hexagon’s solutions as part of AI Hub. Hexagon’s AI Hub comprises a corporate team of experts that stay ahead of the latest AI trends and research, to develop an AI mindset across entire workforce. The Hub is at the centre of a global network of universities and companies developing the cutting edge of industrial AI, including NVIDIA and Microsoft.
