(KXNET) — Artificial Intelligence continues to evolve, each and every day. And recently, the first phase of a new AI service could transform the way companies produce their goods.

Helios Artificial Intelligence, Inc. is currently testing the beta phase of its AI service, which aims to predict ag supply chain disruptions before they happen.

“Let’s imagine you’re Starbucks and you’ve got hundreds of thousands of different suppliers from all over the world that you’re importing coffee, cacao, etc., etc. What we do that is so special in the space is, we look at each of those suppliers and we call them each a flow. And we immediately give them a risk score,” said Francisco Martin-Rayo, the CEO and co-founder.

Once the risks are identified and suppliers are assigned a risk score, importers have the chance to mitigate the risks before they affect the supply chain.

“We’re able to say ‘Hey, you kind of focus on these 3%, or 4%, or 7% because these are the ones that are most at risk o not being able to give you or produce what you’ve contracted out.’ And then you can click into each of those and tell you what’s driving that risk.’ Right is it climate issues? Is it economic risk? Is it political risk? Is it ESG risk,” said Martin-Rayo.

Martin-Rayo says being able to know what issues may arise ahead of time, could help put a company at an advantage.

And an NDSU extension specialist agrees.

“Having that information could be valuable in that you might be able to do something to say buy the grain you need in the future today, at a lower price., before it gets a chance to rise in price because there’s a shortage of it,” said NDSU Professor of Practice and Extension Livestock Development Specialist, Jon Biermacher

But, Biermacher also says, while artificial intelligence is smart, there are some things it might not be able to predict, like the global Pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

“Here everybody’s got their predictive models for yield and they’ve got Ukraine as a big wheat-producing part of the world, it’s the largest in the Odesa region. Big, big producer. And now all of a sudden there’s a war. And what does it do to the price? The price of wheat skyrockets. The price of all grain skyrocketed because of the uncertainty of what that wheat crop’s going to look like,” said Biermacher.

However, he says overall there is value in being able to predict situations with AI, even though there will always be people who may use that information to take advantage of a situation.

Martin-Rayo says in about six weeks, the beta stage of Helios will be done and catastrophic events like floods, and hurricanes will be added to the AI’s processing.

Anyone can access and use Helios during the beta phase with a free 30-day trial.