JANUARY 2019 INTERVIEW
A quarter say AI will ‘enable more creativity in
business’, while 27% say it will ‘help create new
jobs and industries.’
Getting people involved in the AI revolution
will therefore be vital to its success. Luckily,
manufacturing often finds itself at the forefront
of technological change, and workers in the
sector are more open to change than in many
others. “For manufacturers, the willingness to
embrace and implement new technologies is
long-ingrained,” expands Wignall. “We can see
this clearly, as the UK manufacturing sector
currently leads in the way of adoption, with
15% of organisations saying they are already
employing technologies such as AI, a figure
well ahead of banking (6%), government (1%)
and retail (8%). Industry-leading customers
such as the Manufacturing Technology Centre
have embraced AI within their organisation
to streamline operations, and create a more
engaging and consultative experience for its
customers allowing employees to focus on tasks
where innately human skills are imperative.
“So, as the appetite and optimism for
the technology remains strong, the industry
conversation must evolve to a story of human
augmentation, not simply automation. Here, the
industry must continue to innovate and look
beyond the first generation of AI applications
to consider how it can harness intelligent
technology to further enhance working practices
and human machine collaboration. Only then
will manufacturers truly embrace AI to its full
potential and enhance factors like performance,
precision and productivity in the longer term
– all of which remain critical in today’s UK
manufacturing sector.”
The report highlights what it calls the ‘five
dimensions of the AI opportunity’ (see box,
right). These are the key considerations that
companies must bear in mind when looking to
implement artificial intelligence. It’s telling,
then, that Microsoft stress the importance of
all five working together, but with people at the
centre. “Just as with any new way of working,
successfully building AI into an organisation’s
operating practices requires both leaders and
employees to adopt a culture of continuous
learning in which new solutions are introduced,
experimented with and shaped from the groundup
as well as the top-down,” the report says.
As an industry, and a wider economy, we are
only scratching the surface of AI’s potential. In
the coming five years, companies will become
increasingly AI-driven. Luckily, manufacturing
is better-placed than most to embrace this
change, and ensure workers are on board with
the new technologies. It’s time to prepare the
ground now for the significant changes to come,
concludes Wignall. “The potential for AI in the
UK remains incredibly high, and an opportunity
that businesses simply can’t afford to miss,” he
says. “Let’s remember, though, that this will be a
long journey and the potential value of AI is only
set to increase.”
To download the full Microsoft
report, Maximising the
AI opportunity,
visit https://bit.ly/2CnA5N5
The five dimensions of the AI opportunity
1Technology – AI has an
unprecedented impact on the
evolving world of business. Technical
knowledge of AI capabilities – now and
in the near future – allows organisations
to begin to harness its potential.
2People – Both the nature and
quality of human work will
transform, creating a new set of desired
skills, new ways of learning, and
requiring personal mindset shifts to
resilience and agility.
3 Culture – AI requires
socioeconomic, cultural, and
organisational change. Relationships
between workers and organisations are
shifting, giving way to a culture of
educating, training, and retraining the
current and future workforce.
4 Ethics – Radical socioeconomic
and cultural changes are expected
to follow the transition to an AI-driven
society, and a close ethical evaluation
must occur to build fair AI platforms for
a healthy future.
5Impact – Organisations are under
increasing pressure to assess and
maintain their global citizenship and
environmental stewardship,
necessitated by the sheer scale by
which AI can potentially affect societies
and the world as a whole.
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