Inditex joins IndesIA, the artificial intelligence consortium of the Spanish industry, as a partner.

With the incorporation of Inditex, IndesIA continues to advance in its desire to boost the competitiveness of the Spanish industrial network, integrating into the consortium the country’s leading industrial companies with the aim of focusing on the development of cases to apply data technology and artificial intelligence to solve the challenges of the sector in a cross-cutting manner and that are applicable to the entire value chain of companies. 

Thus, there are already nine large companies in the industrial sector in Spain that are part of this strategic consortium with a European vocation, which also has the support of the Basque Artificial Intelligence Center (BAIC) and Accenture. 

Inditex’s leadership in its sector and its great innovative capacity will allow IndesIA to accelerate its growth and consolidate its positioning, in order to continue bringing to all companies in the country a value proposition that allows them to boost their digitization, access to platforms and data spaces necessary for the implementation of use cases and the increase of capabilities associated with existing digital profiles. 

The Inditex Group operates in the fashion distribution sector globally, both through physical stores in 95 markets and its online platform available in more than 200 countries. Innovation is a substantial part of its business model and the use of the latest technologies available has been a constant throughout its history, always with the aim of offering its customers the product they want and the best shopping experience. Its incorporation to IndesIA is consistent with its strategy of continuous process improvement in all its areas of activity, commercial management and industrial and logistics processes.

This new membership is further evidence of the interest of companies and institutions in joining the digital transformation and promoting the use of data and Artificial Intelligence to improve and boost new business models. To date, the association has received more than 100 applications from SMEs that want to join the project. Currently, IndesIA already has the support of six universities and training centers to give impetus to the training part; four technology centers; an association to promote the ethical use of data; and the Spanish Association for Artificial Intelligence itself. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is undoubtedly creating many business opportunities in Spain, through process optimization, energy efficiency, predictive maintenance, the creation of new products or the improvement of customer relations, among other areas. At present, according to the map of artificial intelligence capabilities of the Government of Spain, there are 235 entities that develop or offer AI services. These data show that artificial intelligence is one of the best opportunities for the growth of the Spanish economy; its application in industry will have an estimated impact on the Spanish GDP of 16,500 million euros in 2025, according to IndesIA estimates.

In this sense, and as a sign of IndesIA’s commitment to position Spain as a benchmark in the use of data and artificial intelligence in industry, the association has recently joined, along with 18 other companies, the cluster for the development and application of Artificial Intelligence promoted by the Community of Madrid and also holds the vice presidency of Gaia-X Spain, the national hub of the data economy that is committed to the European sovereignty of data spaces in strategic sectors. 

Use cases: AI for process improvement

The member companies of IndesIA consider that the industrial sector is facing major challenges: increasing competitiveness through automation and optimization of industrial processes, improving sustainability through energy efficiency, the development of new materials and the strengthening of the circular economy. To this end, use cases have been identified in which the use of data and artificial intelligence is of substantial help, making industrial data platforms and qualified talent available to the sector. 

The application of these new technologies improves processes in companies, eliminating possible inefficiencies, detecting them in less time, as well as offering solutions based on the knowledge provided by data. Making organizations more efficient promotes the development of a new economy that generates economic growth for Spain. It also leads to a measurable improvement in competitiveness and sustainability in industries that are key to the economy and facilitates the generation of high quality jobs and the retention of talent. 

Some examples of how artificial intelligence can be applied are the creation of intelligent, autonomous, flexible, sustainable and virtualized factories; predictive maintenance in plants and industrial centers; improving efficiency or avoiding possible incidents in production plants, generating a culture of prevention and anticipation that boosts productivity and efficiency. 

About IndesIA

IndesIA is a Spanish association of artificial intelligence for industry, formed by nine large Spanish companies, Repsol, Gestamp, Navantia, Técnicas Reunidas, Telefónica, Microsoft, Airbus, Ferrovial and Inditex, with the support of the Basque Artificial Intelligence Center (BAIC) and Accenture. Its objective is to position Spain as a benchmark in the use of data and artificial intelligence in the industrial field and to boost the development of the economy and the country’s recovery. 

About the Inditex Group

Inditex is one of the world’s leading fashion retail groups. The collections of its seven commercial brands (Zara, Zara Home, Pull & Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius and Oysho) have an extensive commercial presence thanks to its integrated sales platform, which has more than 6,400 points of sale in physical stores in 95 markets and operates in more than 200 online markets.