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ZDNET's key takeaways:
Manufacturers are using AI to adapt to a shifting business landscape.
The technology is addressing labor shortages, among other uses.
Experiments with AI are revealing new benefits and risks.
Manufacturing firms are turning to AI to help them adapt to disruptions in their industry caused by tariffs, shifts in global supply chains, inflation, and other factors, according to manufacturing supply company Rockwell Automation's latest Annual State of Smart Manufacturing report.
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The report, based on a survey of over 1,500 manufacturing business leaders across 17 countries, found that 41% are turning to AI to compensate for labor shortages, which have been plaguing the industry for the last several years. Half of all respondents, for example, said they plan to use the technology for quality control over the next year, and an almost equal number (49%) said they'll integrate the technology into their cybersecurity infrastructure over the same time period. Other commonly cited upcoming uses of AI were process optimization (42%), robotics (37%), and logistics (36%).
"These significant increases over the next 12 months are more than a step-change in the attitude of manufacturers toward AI/ML, with a swing to seeing AI/ML as a core of technology strategy," the authors write in their report.
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