Artificial Intelligence in the space industry: business model innovation and archetypes

Digital technologies - Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cloud computing and Internet of Things (IoT) - are impacting all industries in general and the Space Industry in particular, advancing the frontier of what machines can do to unlock the secrets of space data. These technologies and specifically AI, associated with the vast amount of Earth Observation (EO) data opened to the world on a daily basis, could be perceived as triggers of Business Model innovation (BMI) in the Space Industry. In this perspective, AI, by allowing optimised data processing, can change the way firms create, deliver and capture value. While understanding BM as a set of different components, the objective of this study is to provide recommendations to practitioners and space industry private and public actors by i) investigating the possible paths that BMI processes triggered by AI can follow and ii) AI-based BM archetypes. Main findings show that, in the Space Industry, the starting point of the BMI process enabled by AI is localized in the Infrastructural area of the BM (Key Resources, Activities and Partners) and then expands to the Value Proposition. In addition two BM archetypes are identified. In the first, AI is a value in itself: Customers are offered highly skilled competences on AI to address some of the main Space missions’ concerns, in terms of resources optimisation and automation. In the second, AI in association with other technologies, plays an instrumental role to provide Customers with a Value Proposition that responds to their informative and business intelligence needs.