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SIRKULÆRØKONOMI-Sirkulær økonomi

AI enabled transition to circular business models for Norwegian industrial ecosystems

Alternative title: AI muliggjør overgang til sirkulære forretningsmodeller for norske industrielle økosystemer

Awarded: NOK 8.3 mill.

Industrial firms are increasingly shaped by circular economy and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), resulting in significant transformation challenges in how industrial firms and their ecosystem actors can create, deliver, and capture value from circular economy principles. Leveraging AI for circular business-model innovation offers an unprecedented opportunity to accelerate the transition towards entirely new ways of doing business, unlocking new sources of value, revenue, and sustainability benefits. For instance, manufacturing firms such as Kongberg Maritime and Volvo are investing in digitalization and AI analytics that connect various sensor-enabled machines, collect operational data, and conduct cutting-edge analytics to provide circular solutions such as preventive maintenance and life cycle optimization. The prime challenge is no longer technology development; it is putting technology to use in concrete business-model applications that make circularity and sustainability gains come to life. We seek to support this transformation by investigating how industrial manufacturers and their ecosystems partners can design, transform, and align circular business models enabled by AI for sustainable industry. We draw on the in-depth qualitative studies of leading Scandinavian manufacturers and their industrial ecosystems to investigate current challenges, best practices and ecosystem evolution over time. The objectives for the project include: 1) to develop empirical frameworks for AI enabled CBMI, 2) promote academic dialogue through high impact publications and participation in conferences related to AI enabled CBMI in industrial ecosystems, 3) actively support participating companies organizational transformation towards AI-enabled circularity with academic knowledge, and 4) disseminate knowledge through practice-oriented articles, workshops, seminars and open-access publications.

Industrial firms are increasingly shaped by circular economy and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), resulting in significant transformation challenges in how industrial firms and their ecosystem actors can create, deliver, and capture value from circular economy principles. AI-driven circular business-model innovation (CBMI) offers an unprecedented opportunity to support entirely new ways of doing business, unlocking new sources of value, revenue, and sustainability benefits. For instance, manufacturing firms such as Kongberg Maritime and Volvo are investing in digitalization and AI analytics that connect various sensor-enabled machines, collect operational data, and conduct cutting-edge analytics to provide circular solutions such as preventive maintenance and life cycle optimization. The prime challenge is no longer technology development; it is putting technology to use in concrete business-model applications that make circularity and sustainability gains come to life. We seek to support this transformation by investigating how industrial manufacturers and their ecosystems partners can design, transform, and align AI-driven CBMI for sustainable industry. We draw on the cross-country empirical context of industrial ecosystems and a mixed-methods approach to develop knowledge of AI-driven CBMI transformation processes as well as performance and sustainability effects as well as high-impact academic publications and industry-dissemination events.

Funding scheme:

SIRKULÆRØKONOMI-Sirkulær økonomi