Cognizant has received the Forbes India Microsoft AI Award 2.0 for ‘Best AI Application in Manufacturing.’ The award was presented for the most innovative AI solution proven as “game changer” in elevator maintenance services, done in partnership with Microsoft.

Resolving fault codes in elevator panels is a time-consuming process; on-site technicians need to review hundreds of pages of product specs and reference historical maintenance logs to assess issues; they often seek experts’ advice for resolution. As such, the client sought to improve productivity, response time, and accuracy while reducing operational costs.

The Cognizant team utilized its Operations Intelligence offering to codify cumulative expert input as knowledge graphs in Microsoft Azure. The resulting NLP-driven smart elevator assistant engages in conversation with the technician while it traverses through the decision trees to troubleshoot the fault codes. With AI-enabled search, it also pulls up contextual information for product specs and historical logs. The AI model continuously learns from new issues to evolve for optimum accuracy over time. The AI-driven digital transformation has produced tangible results, reducing overall elevator downtime while scaling-up service operations. 

“We are pleased to receive the Microsoft AI 2.0 Award,” said Bret Greenstein, Senior Vice President and Global Head, Artificial Intelligence & Analytics, Cognizant Digital Business. “This project highlights what is possible when we leverage AI to transform machine operations by understanding how machines are working, identifying the optimal fixes, and using natural language to provide the best advice, hands free for technicians.”