In an increasingly connected world, IoT and AI are revolutionizing the way industrial companies operate, make decisions, and generate value. In this interview, we speak with Cecilia GuerraCDO of Alhonawho explains how data and AI will transform the industry: from process optimization to intelligent and proactive business models.
1. As CDO of Alhona, what do you believe is the main value we gain from extracting the largest volume of data through the Internet of Things?
The real value of IoT is not just in collecting data but in transforming it into actionable knowledge that drives operational efficiency. It’s not only about measuring what’s happening, but about identifying patterns, predicting behaviors, minimizing downtime, anticipating bottlenecks, and ultimately, making decisions based on facts rather than assumptions.
But the impact goes far beyond that. Integrating data throughout the entire production chain is key to unlocking its true potential. Many companies still manage their data in isolation, across different systems and departments. Integrating all these data sources, combined with massive IoT deployment, allows us to put data into context and create a 360º real-time view of the process. The result: improved operational efficiency, proactive problem response, optimized resource use, and increased competitiveness.
2. How do these data transform decision-making?
It’s no longer just about data helping humans make better decisions. We are entering an era where organizations themselves become autonomous decision-making systems, driven by artificial intelligence and interconnected information networks.
Thanks to IoT, we connect the physical world with the digital one, enabling us to know exactly what is happening in our factories in real time and with full detail. If we add AI to this, virtualization layers for experimentation, and infrastructure that bridges OT and IT, and vice versa, we move from interpreting what’s happening in a factory to automating large-scale decision-making with a global approach. AI and virtualization allow us to learn and test millions of alternative scenarios to automatically execute the best strategy at any given moment.
So, the question is no longer how we use data to make better decisions, but rather how data makes decisions for us, creating agile, flexible business models that evolve autonomously.
3. Can you give us an example of how data exploitation improves process efficiency?
AI applied to the physical world is the real game-changer in the industry. One of the most disruptive cases is the use of AI and optimization models for real-time hyper-personalized production. These are production lines that dynamically self-adjust to manufacture unique products based on customer needs and market conditions.
In sectors like cosmetics, food, or chemicals, AI redefines formulas on the fly depending on raw material availability, consumer preferences, and even weather conditions that affect ingredient stability. All of this happens while optimizing costs, reducing waste, and adapting each product to demand.
Even in the pharmaceutical and advanced materials industries, AI is designing new formulas and production processes in real time, accelerating innovation without long trial-and-error cycles.
4. How do you see the use of data evolving in companies?
More and more, companies will move toward hyperconnectivity, becoming cognitive organizations where data not only serves to analyze the past or predict the future, but becomes the key asset enabling AI models to continuously reconfigure how businesses operate and generate value.
Additionally, we’ll see greater use of AI and digital twins, allowing companies to test and simulate endless business configurations in a virtualized environment before implementing them in the real world—drastically reducing risk and accelerating innovation.
We’ll also witness the rise of autonomous markets, where data from multiple companies interconnects on decentralized platforms based on blockchain and AI, allowing supply and demand to balance without human intervention. This means that, in the future, companies will not only compete through products or services, but through the quality of their AI models and their ability to interpret and act on data faster than their competitors.
The era of digital companies is coming to an end. We’re entering a new era: the age of self-evolving enterprises, where data doesn’t just inform decisions, it executes and continuously optimizes them.
