Why should manufacturers embrace AI’s next frontier – AI agents – now?
AI agents will elevate the manufacturing industry to become near-autonomous. Image: via REUTERS
- Virtual and embodied artificial intelligence (AI) agents will elevate the manufacturing industry to become near-autonomous.
- AI agents can revolutionize direct and indirect manufacturing functions, enhance software systems, and push the boundaries of physical automation.
- Despite their potential, adopting AI agents often face barriers such as trust issues, technological limitations and scalability challenges.
Manufacturers face mounting pressures to transform their operations as the industrial landscape becomes increasingly complex. Uncertainties include labour shortages, rising costs, shifting geopolitical dynamics, and decarbonization goals.
To succeed, manufacturers must embrace artificial intelligence (AI) and its latest advancement – AI agents – which push the boundaries of innovation and transform factories. The factory of the future will evolve to become a powerhouse of real-time intelligence, with AI agents enabling near-autonomous systems to increase overall productivity and ensure competitiveness.
In this paradigm, humans will transition from hands-on operators to strategic orchestrators, focusing on creativity, oversight and decision-making. However, navigating this rapidly evolving new reality requires manufacturers to balance immediate operational needs with long-term strategic foresight and planning while ensuring responsible transformation practices.
The whitepaper Industries in the Intelligent Age - Frontier Technologies in Industrial Operations: The Rise of Artificial Intelligence Agents, a collaboration between the World Economic Forum and Boston Consulting Group, aims to provide manufacturers with a comprehensive roadmap for embracing AI agents and progressing through this transformation.
Why are AI agents a game changer in manufacturing?
Many frontier technologies are poised to reshape industrial operations in the coming years. Innovations such as the industrial metaverse, digital twins and advanced robotics hold immense promise. AI is at the heart of these advancements – a foundational technology driving transformative change.
AI agents amplify the manufacturing vision of real-time decision-making, near-autonomous systems and seamless human-machine collaboration.
While manufacturing productivity has stagnated over the past decade in markets such as Germany and the United States, this transformative vision presents a significant opportunity to reignite productivity growth and redefine the competitive landscape of industrial operations.
AI has already proven its value in industrial operations, with early adopters achieving up to 14% savings through AI.
AI agents elevate this impact further, building on the capabilities of generative AI by interacting with their environment and autonomously executing tasks.
This shift marks a new dimension in technological maturity, advancing beyond assistance and recommendation systems to enable self-controlling systems. Such systems are capable of transformative operational impacts once implemented at scale.
Two types of AI agents are at the forefront of this transformation: virtual AI and embodied AI agents. These agents are expected to enhance digital applications and physical systems respectively, performing complex tasks with minimal human intervention.
Virtual AI agents advance autonomous software systems, enabling them to autonomously achieve defined tasks in the digital environment. On the other hand, embodied AI agents equip physical systems such as robots with the ability to perceive and act within the physical environment, allowing for dynamic and complex movements.
Together, these advancements lead industrial automation into a new era, where the boundaries of what machines can achieve are continuously redefined.
Where can manufacturers embrace AI agents?
The potential of AI agents in manufacturing extends across direct and indirect functions. Manufacturers can build collaborative ecosystems and achieve competitive advantage by partnering with technology leaders.
Virtual AI agents play a major role in facilitating and, wherever feasible, automating human-machine interaction, providing shop-floor insights, and supporting humans with decision-making.
For instance, Siemens has deployed its Industrial Copilot, developed in collaboration with Microsoft, at its electronics factory in Erlangen. The system operates across soldering machines, demonstrating the ability to translate machine error codes and suggest actions to operators and maintenance staff.
Embodied AI agents, on the other hand, simplify the automation engineering process and push the boundary of what is automatable. For instance, Otto Group has partnered with Covariant to implement pick-and-place robots in their distribution centres that autonomously recognize unknown parts and can be instructed using natural language.
Additionally, automotive original equipment manufacturers are increasingly experimenting with advanced robotics, including humanoid robots, for assembly and other complex tasks beyond the capabilities of current robotic solutions.
For example, BMW is piloting Figure’s humanoid robot in Spartanburg, while Mercedes is partnering with Apptronik.
How can manufacturers kick-start this journey?
While AI agents open new horizons of opportunity, their adoption and impact often fall short of expectations due to significant challenges.
Trust remains a key barrier, as many teams are hesitant to rely on autonomous systems without clear evidence of their capabilities and limitations. Beyond this people dimension, technological hurdles such as siloed applications, legacy systems and limited scalability have hindered progress.
A successful implementation requires strong organizational and technological foundations to enable the scale deployment of AI agents. On the organizational side, this includes a tailored governance framework, adapting people’s skills and capabilities, and fostering a culture of change.
Technological foundations include achieving information or operational technology convergence (IT/OT), making operational data accessible and ensuring the right computing, connectivity and cybersecurity infrastructure is implemented.
Manufacturers can be proactive here by addressing their most pressing operational challenges and adopting a value-focused strategy. Starting with a pilot allows them to demonstrate the tangible benefits of AI agents, build trust among workers and establish the groundwork for scaling transformation across the organization.
Read the full report here: Industries in the Intelligent Age - Frontier Technologies in Industrial Operations: The Rise of Artificial Intelligence Agents.
If you are interested in shaping the next frontier of industrial operations driven by frontier technologies, we invite you to reach out to the Next Frontier of Operations team.
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Gideon Lichfield
February 11, 2025