Enterprise Customers Get Venue to Co-Create Innovative Technologies to Solve Industry-Specific Challenges

Revolutionary technology breakthroughs in business don't happen by accident. That's why AT&T* is launching a vertical industry-focused space at the AT&T Foundry in Plano to showcase our edge-to-edge network capabilities and develop transformative technologies.

The new Foundry space comes on the heels of AT&T Business aligning its sales and marketing efforts to key vertical industries: manufacturing, retail, finance, healthcare and the public sector.

"The AT&T Foundry has mastered the art of listening to and advising our customers on solutions for their technology challenges, then turning those conversations into action," said Abhi Ingle, AT&T Senior Vice President, Digital, Distribution and Channel Marketing. "By bringing businesses into this collaborative environment of engineers, technologists and cybersecurity experts, we are helping them get in front of industry-specific trends in the digital age before they become mainstream and, in turn, equipping our customers with disruptive industry solutions."

Co-creating for vertical industry customers

Our customers’ technology needs are best met when we can bring them closer to the source of innovation.

Since 2011, the AT&T Foundry has illustrated the art of the possible to our customers and worked hand-in-hand with them to address their business challenges and rapidly test, iterate and develop prototypes of network-enabled technologies like smart coolers and connected medical flasks.

We're extending this proven model of customer co-creation to our vertical customers. At the AT&T Foundry in Plano, we've set up a new physical space encompassing all aspects of an industry environment - from manufacturing to distribution to retail. This fully integrated space showcases how AT&T's digital technology and cybersecurity capabilities can address real-world challenges. We'll collaborate with businesses to help them take advantage of existing and emerging technologies like 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), software-defined networking (SDN), and the Internet of Things (IoT) to drive their industry-specific digital transformation needs. In turn, they can bring innovative new technologies to market more quickly and streamline their business network operations.

For example, AT&T has committed to introducing standards-based mobile 5G in parts of 12 cities before the end of the year, and will also be activating 5G capabilities in the AT&T Foundry in the coming months. That industry-leading capability will help enable AT&T Foundry customers to test potential 5G solutions. In turn, they’ll be positioned to bring 5G-powered products and services to their customers as quickly as possible.

Beyond tapping into our 5G potential, additional industry-focused use cases could include:  

• Using 5G-enabled network slicing in a manufacturing shop floor to create a separate network for operational equipment efficiency,
  
• Employing technology to transform the retail buying experience for consumers through innovative solutions like digital signage, IoT-enabled smart shelving and auto-inventory tracking,
• Enabling life-changing healthcare technologies, like Aira, that use our IoT connectivity to bridge the physical gap between caregiver and patient,
• Deploying drones to rethink the damage assessment process for insurance companies, and
• Applying AI or machine learning techniques to enhance situational awareness for first responders.

"The AT&T Foundry's approach to innovating transformative, valuable technology solutions is very intentional and specific to each of our customers," said Vishy Gopalakrishnan, vice president of AT&T Ecosystem & Innovation. "We're uniquely situated to demonstrate AT&T's extensive suite of network and security capabilities and to harness our deep technical expertise to create integrated solutions using existing and future technologies. Through the launch of this vertical-focused space, we can more quickly and effectively work in-step with our customers to address their industry-related challenges."

"The AT&T Foundry has been an exceptional innovation alliance for Aira,” said Suman Kanuganti, CEO and Founder of Aira. “From connecting our smart glasses for the blind to creating cutting edge AI- and machine learning-based healthcare applications, the Foundry has been a go-to collaborator for every step of our innovation process." 

"Arrow is no stranger to the AT&T Foundry. We are proud to work alongside AT&T at solving for customers innovation challenges as we collaborate on connected Internet of Things solutions," said Aiden Mitchell, vice president, IoT Global Solutions at Arrow Electronics. "With this new focus on key verticals, we're able to innovate together on smart manufacturing processes that will both increase efficiencies and lower costs."