The Ultimate Guide to Data + AI for Industries 2026

From hype to business value: Navigating data, gen AI and AI agents

AI is transforming every major industry, and its potential use cases are vast. Research shows that for organizations seeking increased efficiency, improved customer experience, reduced costs and more, AI delivers value. In this guide, we explore myriad ways that organizations are leveraging data and AI to drive success. Here are just a few examples:

• Healthcare: Use vast patient datasets to reveal patterns, predict health outcomes and enable more precise diagnoses.

• Financial services: Rapidly analyze extensive market data to identify emerging trends.

• Retail: Transform customer data into highly personalized shopping journeys, boosting customer satisfaction and fostering lasting loyalty.

• Public sector: Enhance the ability to predict disease outbreaks and disaster impacts, facilitating the swift and accurate deployment of emergency services.

• Manufacturing: Employ AI-driven visual inspection systems to detect unusual patterns and deviations in production.

• Advertising, media and entertainment: Extract deep insights from unstructured data to pinpoint customer behaviors, sentiments and trends, for highly personalized and timely experiences for audiences.

• Telecommunications: Proactively identify and resolve network issues and service disruptions to enhance service quality, reliability and operational efficiency, with the ultimate goal of moving toward autonomous network management.