Explore how S&P 500 companies use AI.

What they did

The expanded 3M Digital Materials Hub combines generative AI, advanced modeling, and 3M's material-science expertise to let engineering teams collaborate with 3M scientists, work with advanced optical models, and request virtual materials that do not yet exist. It is positioned as a platform that compresses the path from problem statement to concept to digital validation, reducing iterations and prototyping cost in product development workflows.

What they did

3M deployed an AI agent that analyzes sales and opportunity pipeline data to develop customized coaching plans for sales managers to help reps meet their targets, as described in the Q1 2026 earnings call.

What they did

As part of the 3M–Microsoft strategic partnership, Microsoft's Frontier Company team is embedding engineers within 3M's Global Business Services to automate customer order management. The collaboration uses an AI agent-driven workflow with human-in-the-loop controls and a custom monitoring dashboard to handle credit checks, delinquency assessments, and system updates in real time, with the stated goal of cutting manual effort, improving consistency and accelerating cash flow.

What they did

3M is deploying Microsoft AI and digital capabilities across customer service, finance, sales, marketing, and global business services. Use cases include AI agent-enabled workflows to optimize customer orders with human-in-the-loop controls and custom monitoring dashboards providing real-time visibility. Expected outcomes include reduced manual effort, faster processes, accelerated cash flow, and scalable auditable operations.

What they did

3M describes AI helping design engineers shorten the path from challenge to solution in product development. The 3M Stories page references the use of AI to accelerate engineering design workflows, with the underlying story appearing on 3M's news site.

What they did

3M is integrating AI-enabled tools to enhance sales force effectiveness, including a sales coaching agent and "Ask 3M," a digital assistant for customer design challenges. These tools are used to drive growth, reduce churn, and automate manual tasks, with cross-selling bookings of ~$80 million against a three-year target of $100 million and a further $85 million pipeline.

What they did

3M operates AI Chatbots on its websites to provide automated conversational responses to user inquiries, with stated applications including AI Services made available across the site.

What they did

Ask 3M is a generative-AI digital assistant that gives industrial customers self-service access to 3M technical expertise. It is grounded in verified 3M documentation across the company's 49 technology platforms and currently focuses on industrial adhesives and tapes, with plans to expand into additional categories. The tool helps customers evaluate materials, compare product options, and resolve application challenges through natural-language Q&A, linking product suggestions to authorized distributors and allowing source-document downloads inside the conversation.

What they did

3M deploys a proprietary automated web inspection system that digitally scans 500 million square meters of product per year during production, using machine learning algorithms to detect defects smaller than a human hair and to control processes in real time by adjusting process conditions to optimize quality and throughput. More than 100 systems have been deployed on more than 70 production lines worldwide.

What they did

3M is building scalable, secure data platforms on Azure and Databricks that power advanced analytics and machine learning applications enterprise-wide, including ingestion, transformation, storage, feature engineering, feature stores, streaming, vector databases, embeddings and LLM-oriented pipelines, with MLOps and governance practices.

What they did

Under the July 2026 strategic partnership with Microsoft, 3M will expand its use of Microsoft AI, cloud and business platforms across customer service, manufacturing, supply chain operations, cybersecurity and product development. Specific Microsoft technologies named include Microsoft 365 Copilot, Azure AI Foundry, Microsoft Fabric, Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Security products, supporting initiatives ranging from manufacturing optimization and customer service to research and development.

What they did

3M uses generative AI to efficiently parse through volumes of patents and scientific literature during the discovery process, and to identify internal subject matter experts. Corporate scientist Jayshree Seth described the use case at CIEX 2026 as supporting researchers in developing innovations aligned with CEO William Brown's goal of introducing more than 1,000 new products by 2027. Seth prefers the term 'artificial diligence' and emphasizes the need for scientist-led verification of AI-generated content.

What they did

3M Health Information Systems partnered with Telefónica Tech to launch an AI-based Hospital Emergency Department solution in Spain that predicts daily ED visits a week in advance using machine learning. The solution integrates 3M's 'Visor 360' scorecard with Telefónica Tech's AI Suite, enabling healthcare professionals to forecast demand, optimize staff planning, and improve patient care. It is integrated into 3M's 360 Encompass healthcare platform.

What they did

3M’s Global Network & Telecom Services organization is building internal network automation and AI-Ops products, including conversational and agent-driven interfaces that provide natural-language access to network and inventory data. The team integrates LLM assistants, summarization/triage, anomaly detection, natural-language query, and other AI services and agents into production user experiences for global network operations.

What they did

3M Corporate Systems Research Lab uses Amazon SageMaker Data Wrangler, Feature Store and Pipelines to prepare data for ML model training, supporting improvement of tried-and-tested products like sandpaper and innovation in healthcare, with data and models 'doubling every year'. Researchers plan to scale ML across more areas of 3M.

What they did

3M uses predictive AI models to track customer attrition rates across business groups, including TEBG, supporting pricing discipline, cross-selling and churn reduction under the commercial excellence program.

What they did

3M has an internal incubator building a new-to-the-world AI architecture and a new technical category. Early-career AI Software Developers translate Python research modules into scalable Rust components, build simulation, behavioral-equivalence and determinism tests, and profile CPU/memory/latency/throughput to move foundational research into production systems. The incubator embeds proprietary-IP-protected modular interfaces and runtime components within the architecture.

What they did

3M Visual Attention Software (VAS) uses human-vision AI to predict what viewers will see at first glance in a design, claimed with 92% accuracy, so designers can test and refine graphics and signage work. Sold as a commercial product from vas.3m.com.

What they did

A.O. Smith management is exploring and developing AI agent applications for order management, warranty claims processing, and technical service support, citing these as initial targeted use cases within its operational excellence initiatives. CEO Stephen Shafer described these as 'more targeted AI use cases' that the company expects to impact both customer experience and productivity.

What they did

A.O. Smith is hiring GenAI Engineers to design and build RAG pipelines, ingest unstructured technical documentation into searchable knowledge bases, and integrate LLM-driven intelligence into web and mobile platforms. The role works on generative AI that optimizes industrial processes, enhances product connectivity, and streamlines internal engineering workflows.

What they did

A.O. Smith employs AI Engineers who optimize predictive maintenance algorithms and architect pipelines that turn streaming sensor data from millions of connected devices into actionable insights. The Dataford interview guide specifies the focus is on 'time-series data, predictive maintenance, and sensor-based machine learning' applied across the company's water heating and water treatment products.

What they did

A.O. Smith is investing in process intelligence and AI tool sets to improve customer experience and productivity, leveraging process forensics to identify opportunities and developing AI agents to enable performance improvement across the business. The WorkBoardAI case study additionally describes AI-driven insights drawn from strategy execution data.

What they did

A. O. Smith is using WorkBoardAI, a suite of AI agents (Chief of Staff Agent and Leadership Coach Agent) that automate operating rhythms, generate scorecards, prepare MBR/QBR pre-reads, surface execution risks, and draft coaching talking points for managers. CEO Stephen Shafer is quoted endorsing the platform to scale visibility and accountability across the organization.

What they did

Abbott is hiring a Senior AI Integration Analyst within its Automation Business Solutions pillar of the AI Strategy organization, building the integration layer between enterprise systems and AI solutions for GenAI and MLOps pillars. The role owns AI-specific middleware/integration work using MuleSoft/Dell Boomi/Azure Integration Services, REST and FHIR APIs, Python, and HL7/FHIR standards; it builds data pipelines that expose structured enterprise data for AI model development, training, and deployment, and partners with GenAI and MLOps teams to deliver active AI use cases.