The concern that AI will replace humans persists in manufacturing, contributing to the industry’s reluctance to adopt AI-powered technologies. Dynamics Consultants, integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions specialist, addresses this fear and examines the realities of AI use.
For the last three years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a conversation on everyone’s lips, and marketing people have been doing cartwheels over text and imaged based tools from the off. But manufacturing businesses are far more concerned about tangible issues such as staffing, equipment, cash flow, purchasing and efficiencies. As such, MDs, FDs and operations managers are left to worry about whether AI is going to be a rise of the machines, taking over from the people that have made the business what it is, or risk being left behind if they don’t invest in new technologies.
Thinking vs doing
Manufacturing is an industry that has been considering machines vs humans for a long time now; AI might be new technology, but robotics has been around for decades. However, where robots are typically used to replace human functions, the reality of AI in the workplace is that it is there as an enhancement, not replacement. As it has been for the past 30 years, computers are not taking over businesses and replacing the entire workforce, but are an ever more useful tool in helping the people achieve more. With people concerned about computers taking over, this article looks at the reality of what to expect.
Copilot
The individual tools such as Chat GPT are fantastic for marketing, and even as a search engine. However, it is the companies providing complete solutions that are adding AI capabilities that are really making the difference to the working world. Whether it’s appearing on phones, Windows or Microsoft products, Copilot is everywhere! These AI tools are helping to do things like reconciling bank account feeds, helping to create reports, and even asking “how to” when navigating around a system.
How much time do businesses waste trying to extract data from their ERP, CRM (Client Relationship Manager) and spreadsheets, trying to tie it all together to do something productive? With integrated systems and AI, suggested forecasting for stock, cash flow management and predictive maintenance are all realities of the workplace.
As demonstrated by this focus on solutions, AI is part of the toolkit allowing manufacturers to spend less time on those annoying tasks that are wasting time, and more time using their knowledge and skills to make the decisions that will drive a business forward.
AI enhancement not department
With the right solutions, AI will just be features of a business’s existing systems – it doesn’t require a team of PHD computer engineers and scientists to make it a reality. But it is a new way of thinking, and as with anything under the digital transformation banner, it is important to have some champions for the technology that can spread the joy and disseminate the information to the business.
It’s either the future or the past
Companies with the mindset for adopting new technologies and using those tools to achieve more and provide better service are already accelerating past the competition. However, it is becoming clear that those businesses that are not modernising are falling behind and really struggling. Artificial intelligence, therefore, is not the rise of the machines over people, but the rise of digitally transformed businesses over technology dinosaurs.
