Ivan Vekirchyk, a co-founder of KNESS has delivered a speech at the seminar "Global Trends and Artificial Intelligence"

“It is not easy to be among the pioneers implementing AI technologies in the company’s operational processes and activities, but it is worth it. How did we start? We encouraged the team to submit their ideas on how to apply artificial intelligence in their work, provided training, support, and created separate chat branches to share interesting findings of AI tools.  When you “pave new paths” and spend time and resources on it, you end up with a treasure box of unique opportunities that will serve the needs of your business.”— believes Ivan Vekirchyk, a co-founder of KNESS, who is often invited to various events as an expert on the implementation of AI technologies in business.

Recently, as part of the seminar “Global Trends and Artificial Intelligence” at the KIEF Academy, our speaker shared  KNESS Group’s experience with leaders of business, government, and the public sector.

Key takeaways from the speech:

• KNESS team has been using AI in its products for quite some time: the PV.Forecast system, the PV. Predictive Maintenance software module integrated into the PV.SCADA software and other neural network-based developments from our RnD.
• AI can be used to expand the range of products and improve the quality of services, for example, through in-house software solutions based on neural networks.
• By integrating AI into operational activities, it is possible to optimize the time spent on routine tasks by up to 40%, and to fully automate business processes where possible.
• To implement the latest AI-based tools, it is worth evaluating the full range of neural networks’ capabilities. For example, we are currently testing new products from Microsoft and Google, including Microsoft Copilot (Microsoft 365) and Duet AI, and we have also received a relief to implement our own AI projects on Azure resources.
• The communication style of artificial intelligence is becoming more and more empathetic: today, the neural network successfully selects the words of support and encouragement we need.
• It takes time to master AI technologies, so leadership should support and value those employees who are learning new AI-based tools to be even more effective in their work.

AI — KNESS team’s working tool

In order to perform our daily routine tasks, our team already uses AI tools to create information products, for monitoring and analytics, in document management, communications, and programming. We are planning to launch internal training for our team to master AI tools in the relevant areas, specialization, and taking into account individual requests.

KNESS has several AI-based projects  at the development and testing stages that will soon be implemented, including a software product for the automatic generation of commercial offers for the implementation of solar power plants, a project for the initial search and selection of candidates, Cyber Mentor, an information security assistant that will be integrated into a corporate bot, etc.

The examples below are in-house solutions based on neural networks that have been used for quite some time in certain business areas of our company.

Case 1:  PV. Forecast — a system for forecasting renewables generation using AI

A set of mathematical and statistical models combined with artificial intelligence is the basis of the PV generation forecasting system called PV. Forecast. This software solution is one of the most accurate on the RES market. One of the advantages of our solution is that the neural network is trained on the data of a particular power facility, taking into account its characteristics, and as a result, it produces close to accurate forecasting results for different time horizons. 

Currently, more than 160 generation facilities use this system.

Case 2: PV. Predictive Maintenance — a program module for automatic analysis of equipment operation at a solar power plant

Predictive Maintenance — a software module based on neural networks that accurately informs about equipment failure and prevents possible losses of solar generation. How does it work? The program automatically analyzes the equipment on a daily basis to find generation losses and provides appropriate alarms through notification channels convenient for technical personnel.

The software module is part of the hardware and software complex PV. SCADA. Thanks to this additional functionality, the dispatcher can view data on the technical condition of the equipment on a daily basis and, if necessary, instruct the technical service to eliminate the technical violation. The developed system has been used by our service company for more than 2 years in the maintenance of more than a hundred solar power plants with a total capacity of 1.44 GW.

Case 3: AI in KNESSBOT

KNESSBOT — our corporate telegram bot that acts as an assistant for every KNESS employee. KNESSBOT has integration with Azure OpenAI Service, including the GPT 4 Turbo speech model and the DALL-E-3 image generation model.

Thanks to this, our team has even more tools and opportunities: 

• analysis and translation of documents 
• registration of vacations or business trips in electronic format in 10-60 seconds 
• search for colleagues’ contacts and other information about the company in the knowledge base
• creating a support ticket
• image generation and analysis

“In a favorable environment, ideas turn into innovative solutions. We have seen this firsthand. Therefore, we continue to develop and search, test, and develop the latest solutions to achieve our goals. Using something new, changing, learning, implementing innovations in everyday life is important for the development of any business” — summarized Ivan Vekirchyk.