Moreover, in the missing middle, companies can reimagine their business processes to take advantage of collaborative teams of humans working alongside machines. It’s not just digital companies that are exploiting the missing middle. Rio Tinto, the global mining conglomerate, is a case in point. The company is using AI to manage its vast fleet of machinery— autonomous drills, excavators, earth movers, and so on—from a central control facility. This has freed human operators from working in dangerous mining conditions and also enabled Rio Tinto’s team of data analysts to analyze information from sensors on the remote equipment to uncover valuable insights for helping the firm manage its fleet more efficiently and safely