AI in data centers: Reality vs. myth

It is still very early days, but it is clear that artificial intelligence (AI) is set to transform the way data centers are designed, managed and operated — eventually. There has been a lot of misrepresentation and hype around AI, and it’s not always clear how it will be applied, and when. The Uptime Institute view is that it will be rolled out slowly, with initially conservative and limited use cases now and for the next few years. But its impact will grow.

There have been some standout applications to date — for example, predictive maintenance and peer benchmarking — and we expect there will be more as suppliers and large companies apply AI to analyze a wider range of relationships and patterns among a vast range of variables, including resource use, environmental impacts, resiliency and equipment configurations.