SAS heralds curiosity in innovation

Curiosity is transformative. It enables humans to ask bold questions and sparks innovation. Curiosity is also the heartbeat driving SAS’ new brand campaign, “Curiosity Forever.” The global analytics leader unveiled the slogan in advance of its AI and analytics conference, SAS Global Forum, which starts in the USA on 18 May and in Europe, Middle East and Africa a week later.

“Turning data into answers expands the reach of curious human minds and reveals new possibilities,” says SAS CEO Jim Goodnight. “When harnessed to the right technology, curiosity can change the world. Together with our customers and partners, we dare to ask, ‘What if?’ In return, our customers live out the promise of SAS by improving bottom lines and efficiency while making the world safer, stronger and more resilient.” 

The global SAS team, says the organisation, is fascinated by the possibilities analysed data – anywhere at any scale – reveals for customers. As a trusted partner that helps customers use data to accelerate decisions, SAS creates innovative products and services, and disrupts their industries. The Curiosity Forever campaign echoes those qualities.

In 2019, SAS committed $1-billion to artificial intelligence investments with the underlying promise to continue pushing AI boundaries with new products. SAS continues to invest more than a quarter of its annual revenue into R&D, twice the investment of most major technology companies.

SAS was also recognised by Fast Company as a World’s Most Innovative Company in two categories. In the Social Good category, it was recognised for its environmental efforts – from protecting the Amazon rainforest and the planet’s biodiversity to boosting healthy bee populations. An innovative Flood Prediction and Preparedness Solution powered by SAS IoT analytics and Microsoft Azure earned SAS top Joint Venture recognition.

SAS’ dedication to fuelling innovation and problem solving was also seen in its first global Hackathon, where more than 100 teams from 31 different countries came together to fast-track innovation. From building products to revolutionise an industry to tackling one of the world’s pressing societal problems, participants used the power of SAS and open source on Microsoft Azure to find ways of bringing practical innovation to the marketplace.

According to Jenn Chase, SAS senior vice president and head of marketing, SAS leans into curiosity. 

“Curiosity drives everything we do,” Chase says. “The Curiosity Forever campaign is global in scope, spanning multiple languages and five key industries: banking, government, manufacturing, retail and healthcare. Underpinning it all is our belief that analytics – like those embedded into our agile SAS Viya platform – can help change the world.”

SAS Viya puts the power of analytics into the hands of anyone from a data scientist to a manufacturing shop floor worker to a risk manager. Pushing analytics to data in the cloud drives faster results so customers can expedite the release of new life-saving medicines, crave-worthy consumer products, and the security measures that keep personal data safe.

“Our technology is recognised as a clear leader in a very noisy market”, says SAS chief technology officer Bryan Harris. “Unlike many vendors who are trying to get out of the hype cycle of AI and machine learning, SAS software has been leveraged by thousands of companies to answer some of the most challenging questions in the world. The Curiosity Forever campaign captures this relentless pursuit to help everyone make better decisions.”

SAS’ social innovation initiative aims specifically at finding creative ways to accelerate global progress and move the world toward a more sustainable future. Through partnerships with customers, industry groups, non-profits, government agencies and global organisations, SAS says, it puts its analytics to work on the world’s most pressing needs.

Susan Ellis, SAS director of corporate social innovation and brand, says: “We’ve seen first-hand how human curiosity empowered by SAS Analytics can propel significant progress – from preserving and protecting the environment to strengthening education to reducing human suffering and building a more just society. SAS was founded with the idea that analytics can move the world, and we continue our passion for applying analytics to help solve society’s greatest challenges.”

SAS championed a variety of projects in 2020 to help protect the environment and use its analytics for the social good. The company launched curiosity.sas.com as a destination dedicated to spotlighting data for good projects and social innovation stories, such as the work it’s doing with the Malala Fund to predict the impact of climate change on girls’ education.

In 2020 SAS also acquired Boemska, to accelerate AI integration into cloud marketplace and third-party applications. SAS is focused on helping customers derive more from data: real-time insights that build more efficiency and stronger bottom lines.