COVID-19 Impacts on Adoption of Artificial Intelligence

At the same time, hospital personnel were at the forefront of caring for those infected with COVID-19, often contracting the disease themselves and risking their lives in the process. Many hospitals were running at or beyond capacity for times on end. That is why reliable medical, logistical, and technical equipment were of great importance for them during the pandemic.

One major part of the logistical infrastructure of hospitals worldwide are elevators built in hospital buildings. They are needed to transport patients, staff, and equipment between the different floors constantly. Their maintenance is therefore crucial. German elevator maker thyssenkrupp Elevators offers a cloud-based digital platform called MAX that collects data from 130,000 elevators and escalators worldwide to monitor performance and predict when maintenance is due. The data are uploaded in the cloud in real time and analyzed using AI and machine learning algorithms. This service reduces elevator downtime by as much as 50 percent and provides a safer work environment for service engineers and hospital health workers alike.