SAS: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Portfolio Review

The analytics software company SAS is a leading vendor in the artificial intelligence (AI) market.

Cary, North Carolina-based SAS generated $3 billion in revenue in 2020 and is investing $1 billion in artificial intelligence technology, services, and education, according to its 2020-2021 annual report. 

See below to learn all about SAS’ artificial intelligence offerings and where it stands overall in the AI market: 

See more: Artificial Intelligence Market

SAS AI Portfolio

• SAS Visual Data Mining and Machine Learning: A comprehensive visual and programming interface that supports an end-to-end data mining and machine learning (ML) process.

• SAS Visual Text Analytics: Allows users to extract useful information from large volumes of text using natural language processing (NLP), machine learning, and deep learning methods.

• Natural Language Processing: Leverages machine learning to analyze unstructured text. It can be used to detect trends and to perform predictive analytics.

• Computer Vision: Allows users to interpret visual information. For example, it can be used to carry out tasks using deep learning models in conjunction with photos and videos to identify and classify visual information.

• SAS Visual Forecasting: Set up large-scale analyses and forecasts without human intervention. 

• SAS Optimization: Uses the SAS Viya in-memory engine to deliver optimization modeling results quickly. It combines optimization, simulation, and project scheduling techniques to identify actions that will get the best results.

• Statistical Analysis: Scalable to larger data sets. The software is updated regularly, allowing teams to take advantage of the newest methods in the field of statistics.

See more: Artificial Intelligence: Current and Future Trends

SAS AI Partnerships

Several of SAS’ partners focus partly on artificial intelligence solutions with SAS:

• Google Cloud
• IBM
• Intel
• NVIDIA
• Rang Technologies

SASI AI Use Cases

Government: Town of Cary

The Town of Cary in North Carolina is exploring how to use AI through SAS to assist in flood prediction and management.  

Telecommunications: Telefónica

Telefónica used several solutions from SAS to identify customer needs and adapt its strategies and campaigns: for instance, data segmentation, visualization, and analytics — with embedded machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities. 

Sports: Orlando Magic

The Orlando Magic use machine learning in several ways: for instance, for season ticket retention modeling; ticket prospect modeling; ticket demand and sales forecast modeling; and their sales mix strategy for revenue optimization. 

See more: How Artificial Intelligence (AI) is Used by 20th Century Studios, Epiq, PureTech Global, FintechOS, and WildTrack: Case Studies

User Reviews of SAS AI

Users give SAS strong online ratings, for instance, in the visual data mining and machine learning category:

Gartner Peer Insights: 4.4 out of 5

Industry Recognition of SAS AI

SAS was awarded the gold medal in the software industry category as part of Inc.’s “Best in Business” list. 

This was partly due to SAS’ work with the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). The organizations helped citizen scientists review over 60,000 images of the Amazon rainforest to better train AI models in spotting deforestation.

SAS AI in the Market 

SAS held 4.4% of the $3.5 billion AI software market in 2019, according to a 2020 report by IDC.

SAS competes with a variety of companies in the AI software market, including:

• IBM
• Microsoft
• Google
• AWS
• DataRobot
• Palantir
• Cloudera
• Digital Reasoning
• Mathworks
• IPsoft

See more: Top Performing Artificial Intelligence Companies