How is AI changing manufacturing today?
Yuriy: Right now, it is all about human-machine teaming. We are shifting from AI acting as a back-office analytics tool to functioning as an active“ co-pilot” on the factory floor. By connecting the cloud and the conveyor belt, we are empowering frontline operators and maintenance personnel. When an anomaly occurs, an operator no longer has to spend hours digging through manuals or jumping between disparate IT systems to pull machinespecific maintenance logs, quality standards or replacement histories. Instead, they can interact directly with an AI agent at the edge. This agent not only provides real-time, validated diagnostic steps based on the exact state of that specific machine, but also takes action – seamlessly helping to create procurement requests and schedule the required maintenance. My team is currently working with one of the largest manufacturers of personal care products to implement exactly this capability on the floor. We are designing the system to deliver a multidimensional impact: reducing downtime, cutting waste and lowering equipment maintenance costs. But just as importantly, by supercharging these workers with an AI co-pilot, our goal is to ensure much more accurate maintenance records while fundamentally improving frontline morale and retention.
Premkumar: AI is already delivering measurable impact by:
• Improving asset reliability through predictive and prescriptive maintenance
• Optimising yield, energy use and throughput in real time
• Reducing unplanned downtime and quality losses
• Augmenting frontline workers with decision support, not replacing them This isn’ t theoretical – it’ s driving hard improvements
• In efficiency, resilience and unit economics right here and right now.
Ram: Today, one of the most significant developments of AI in the manufacturing sector is the emerging but impactful rise of agentic AI. While it’ s still early days for this more autonomous form of AI( including physical AI implementations), manufacturing is beginning to benefit significantly from its maturity. Agentic AI provides some immediate advantages by leveraging large language models
76 May 2026