Many companies are actively incorporating GIS methods and analysis into their products and services. From logistical behemoths like Amazon, to Covid-19 maps from the NY Times, companies of all size and industry are improving by finding meaningful ways of using GIS to augment their business.
To illustrate how many industries are using GIS below is a brief list of businesses and industries you may have heard of that use GIS:
| Industry | Example Companies | How they use GIS |
| Agriculture | Bayer, Monsanto, Syngenta, John Deere | Using precision agriculture, farmers and agriculture firms use the latest remote sensing data to determine which crops are over or under nourished, prone to flooding, prone to disease, ready for harvest, and track and resolve inefficiencies. Tractors are often semi-autonomous. |
| Automotive | General Motors, Tata Motors, Ford, Tesla, Geely, VW, Toyota, Honda | Many major car manufacturers are working on some level of spatial awareness, and some are working on developing autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles. Many cars come with built in LiDAR, radar, and GPS sensors. |
| Aviation and aerospace | Boeing, NASA, SpaceX, commercial airlines, Northrop Grumman | A large amount of GIS data comes from remote sensing platforms such as drones and satellites, but many GIS tools are used to improve the precision and accuracy of our latest airplanes, rockets, and drones. |
| Cloud services, telecommunications | AWS, Azure, Sprint, Verizon, ATT | Computer networks are as fast as they are, thanks to GIS which seeks to optimize the amount of time it takes for data to get from its origin to its destination at a low cost. This is especially true for the first and last mile of transmission - the placement of cell phone towers is important to users and requires GIS. |
| Ride and Bike share programs | Uber, Lyft, Lime, bike share programs | Uber and Lyft give drivers recommendations for nearby ride-hailers, and also solve a traveling salesman problem in a way that optimizes the experience for the driver and user. Bike and scooter share programs use GIS to track vehicles, plan where stations are, and when and how many vehicles to deliver. |
| Food delivery | DoorDash, Instacart, Grubhub, Uber Eats | Similar to ride sharing apps, Instacart and others use GIS to inform drivers what the best route is route their deliveries. |
| Search and recommendations | Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yelp | Many users care more about nearby goods and services, so websites will use GIS to organize results based on proximity. |
| Social media | Meta, Alphabet, Twitter, TikTok | Social media uses GIS to connect users with local trends, popular posts, and businesses |
| Logistics | UPS, FedEx, DHL, Amazon.com, USPS, Walmart, Target | Getting goods from one place to another in a cost effective and short time is accomplished using GIS. |
| Insurance | Allianz, Cigna, State Farm | GIS is used to estimate and manage risks, such as flood, fire, hurricane, drought, social unrest, political uncertainty, threats to health and safety |
Additionally, GIS is used many government agencies, such as city and urban planning departments and city services, highway, weather, and transportation departments, police and fire departments, EMS, state level departments of public health, and 3-4 letter agencies such as: USGS, EPA, BLM, CDC, DOE, DOD, NGA, CIA, DOA, FEMA, NOAA, NWS.
