Makerverse Report Reveals Limited AI Adoption Among European Manufacturers

Makerverse has issued a report on AI intentions for European manufacturers.

The Berlin-based company provides manufacturing services to industry using CNC milling and 3D print technologies. Makerverse has stepped into the AI world itself with their new AI-based pricing algorithm.

Pricing jobs is a complex affair with many variables, so it’s not surprising that Makerverse opted to try using advanced AI tech to tackle that challenge.

But what about other manufacturers? Are they using AI in some way in their businesses? Do they know what it is and how it works?

That was the subject of their recent survey, the results of which are published on the company’s website. I took a look through the report to find the most interesting parts. Here’s what caught my eye.

An amazing 43% of respondents reported they are not using AI — “AT ALL”. Another 26% use it only minimally. This means that well over half of European manufacturers basically are not using AI and certainly not receiving any of the benefits.

Only a mere five percent reported “extensive” use of AI. Eight percent are “not considering” AI. Wow!

Why are they not using AI? It seems that the number one reason is “lack of expertise”. That’s not surprising, given the incredibly rapid emergence of the technology.

However, I’d suggest another challenge: there aren’t that many out-of-the-box AI solutions on the market yet. There’s not much to buy and implement. That implies companies would have to build AI solutions themselves, and that gets back to the “lack of expertise” problem.

What would companies do with AI tools if they implemented them? The report says the following:

• 59% Quality control and inspection
• 26% Optimizing production planning
• 9% Maintenance
• 6% Supply chain management

Those are all promising areas where AI might provide some benefit, but I suspect that there are quite a few more applications possible. What are they? That’s the problem: this tech is so new that companies almost certainly don’t know what’s possible.

But once involved in AI, they will figure that out.

The report also said some 58% of respondents “acknowledge its importance”. I’m expecting an explosion of AI manufacturing applications in the next couple of years. In fact, some of these apps might literally be built with AI tools.

Via Makerverse