2025: The Year Mission Critical Industries Make the Most of AI-enabled Solutions
2024 was the year we revolutionized the employee experience.
Artificial intelligence (AI) became top of mind for organizations everywhere. According to one McKinsey study, pre-2024 AI adoption among organizations hovered around 50 percent. At the start of 2024, it rose to 72 percent. This trend will only accelerate in 2025 as mission critical industries continue to see more benefit from their AI-enabled solutions.
Across industries and verticals, AI offers a range of new opportunities and potential implementation models ranging from faster response times to efficient equipment maintenance and beyond. Let’s explore the benefits AI brings to industries such as law enforcement, utilities, and construction fleet management, and dive into some best practices for successful implementation.
From Streamlining Data Analysis to Powering Connected Vehicles: The Promise of AI in Law Enforcement
AI tools can help law enforcement organizations get the most out of crime analysis data. As more law enforcement agencies equip officers with mobile devices, they gain access to much more data about trends, such as the frequency of crimes or traffic accidents in particular areas.
Traditionally, reviewing this data and compiling insights has been time consuming. Analytics teams spend hours reviewing handwritten and digital reports. AI-powered applications can help them consolidate data and deliver insights more quickly so the crime analysis teams can instead focus on strategizing and making data-backed decisions. With staffing shortages prevailing across the country, technologies can help departments boost efficiency and support more effective responses.
AI also has the potential to improve response times. New software tools facilitate more intuitive signaling and traffic management on the roads by enabling vehicles and smart street signals to communicate with one another. Deploying AI tools alongside smart pre-emption systems could one day integrate emergency vehicle pre-emption (EVP) capabilities with department dispatch systems. This will help automatically provide traffic light pre-emption based on call severity. As a result, officers can arrive at a scene more quickly.
AI will also transform connected vehicle technology as vehicle-to-vehicle communication improves. This is expected to reduce accidents and enhance response times. For instance, if a car experiences an issue that requires it to slow down, it could automatically signal the cars behind it to decelerate, preventing collisions. This means the community can experience safer roads and officers could save time responding to fewer unexpected calls.
Real-Time Equipment Monitoring & Data-Driven Decision-Making: AI’s Role in Helping Utilities Respond to Rising Demand
2025 will be a busy year for utilities. Already, 75% of the top electric power utilities in the US report increased electricity demand as a result of the data center boom. Some data centers are turning to solar and wind energy to support this need.
What does this mean for utilities? With greater demand for power, technicians will need to work harder to keep equipment operational at all times. They can’t afford downtime.
AI-powered software solutions help technicians track equipment status in real time for more seamless and accurate monitoring. This way, they can detect the need for a repair and intervene before small problems result in service gaps.
AI and Internet of Things (IoT) tools also make it possible for technicians to monitor equipment remotely. Instead of driving to a remote wind farm for equipment checks, technicians can track the status of equipment via AI-powered software applications on their rugged laptops and tablets. They receive updates as issues arise, supporting the team’s overall efficiency.
In addition to equipment maintenance, utilities are digitizing other manual processes, such as filling out forms. AI-enabled software will help interpret this new abundance of digitized data, allowing technicians to make informed decisions about when to prioritize repairs and how to account for increased demand.
Embracing Predictive Maintenance: The Power of AI in Streamlining Construction Fleet Management
Construction professionals operating heavy machinery must ensure the safe operation of equipment on jobsites as well as in maintenance bays and on the road. AI-enabled fleet management solutions help streamline this process by monitoring for potential equipment failures that could put construction teams in danger or cause unplanned downtime.
Construction equipment and vehicles that feature Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) support the safety of equipment operators and their surroundings. AI-enabled features such as geo-spatial fencing, automatic braking, and distraction detection help ensure efficient vehicle operations and safer jobsites overall.
These solutions also help generate more data. Over time, AI-powered software helps humans interpret this data so fleet managers and jobsite leads can achieve better route optimization, efficient material movement, and predictive maintenance on construction machinery.
Getting the Most From AI with Rugged Mobile Solutions
As organizations integrate AI into more workflows, they will need to implement proper guidelines and employee trainings to ensure the organization reaps the most benefit from the technology without compromising any proprietary data. It’s also important for organizations to emphasize the importance of carefully reviewing AI outputs for any errors or inaccuracies.
In addition to implementing appropriate AI guidelines, organizations must equip workers with the right supporting tools to facilitate access to AI-powered insights. Most mobile workers from police officers to utility technicians to fleet managers will access AI insights from their laptops or tablets. Not just any device can withstand these rigorous outdoor environments, however.
Rugged mobile devices come equipped with key features like sunlight viewable screens and glove-touch functionality so workers can still view and access data insights whether the sun is streaming down on them or raindrops adorn the tablet screen.
While rugged features are critical, organizations also need to ensure their devices support the computing and processing power to drive AI applications. It’s best to find the right balance between computing performance, reliability, and longevity. The latest processors along with CPU, GPU, and NPU advancements ensure fast, reliable performance for AI applications. This way, officers maintain access to the insights they need to enter a situation better prepared. And utility technicians can proactively monitor equipment to prevent outages.
The TOUGHBOOK 40 has received AI-ready updates, including new processors that deliver up to 143% faster AI application performance and 73% faster generative AI all while consuming 40% less processor power for AI-enhanced collaboration, compared to previous processors.
Partnering with a technology provider who can offer hardware, software and service support will help organizations ensure they make the right investment. From deployment to rollout, a trusted partner ensures organizations benefit from their AI solutions now and in the future.
The Impact of AI in 2025
AI-powered solutions give mission critical workers the power to make data-driven decisions, enhance response times, minimize downtime, and boost productivity. Using these applications on field-ready, AI-enabled mobile devices like the TOUGHBOOK 40 will help organizations enjoy the best possible results.
I’m excited to see how businesses continue transforming the employee experience with the latest AI-enabled solutions in the new year. Here’s to 2025 — a new era of data-driven productivity powered by AI and human intuition.
