Industrial AI Surges Despite Challenges in Understanding, Implementation, and Staffing

The industrial sector is embracing AI to enhance operations, but challenges remain in understanding, implementing, and staffing these advanced technologies.

Growing enthusiasm for AI in industrial applications: Decision-makers in the industrial AI space are increasingly eager to expand their use of AI technologies to improve workloads and uncover new use cases:

• 94% of decision-makers surveyed by Honeywell have plans to expand their utilization of AI technologies.
• More than 9 in 10 respondents have discovered use cases for AI that they had not initially planned.
• 26% of respondents said decisions on future deployments have already been made following initial implementations of AI.

Key benefits of industrial AI: Respondents identified several significant advantages of augmenting industrial applications with AI:

• Increased efficiency through automation was recognized by 64% of respondents as the top benefit.
• 60% identified improved cybersecurity as another leading benefit.
• Improved decision-making based on real-time data generation was chosen by 59% of respondents.
• Other benefits include increased work flexibility (49%), greater job satisfaction (45%), and providing staff with more time for skills development and creative thinking (44%).

Challenges in AI implementation: Despite the enthusiasm for AI, the survey revealed several obstacles that companies face when implementing these technologies:

• 37% of respondents claimed their C-Suite executives do not fully understand AI.
• 48% said they were having to continuously justify or request sufficient resources to implement AI efforts.
• 63% of respondents said that a quarter or more of their equipment isn’t properly enabled for AI compatibility.
• The most reported challenges include lacking verification of AI outputs (31%), attempting to do too much in-house (30%), and rushing development (30%).

Skill gaps and training needs: One of the major factors impacting industrial AI implementations is the struggle to find staff with the requisite tech skills:

• Only 15% of respondents are currently looking to AI to cover existing labor shortages.
• 81% of respondents said they underestimated the training resources they needed to introduce AI to their workforce.

Broader implications: As the industrial sector continues to adopt AI technologies, companies will need to address the challenges associated with implementation, including securing executive buy-in, allocating sufficient resources, and bridging skill gaps. While the benefits of AI are clear, organizations must approach these technologies strategically and invest in the necessary training and infrastructure to ensure successful deployment. As AI becomes more prevalent in industrial applications, it will be crucial for companies to strike a balance between leveraging the technology’s potential and addressing the human factors involved in its implementation.