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Artificial Intelligence and its Application in the Engineering Industry

What is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial Intelligence or AI is intelligence that is illustrated by machines. This is contrary to intelligence represented by humans (natural intelligence). AI is also commonly referred to as Machine Intelligence.

Industrial Artificial Intelligence applies AI for business or commercial gain. In general AI Is used to perform tasks by building computerized systems that require human intelligence and industrial AI is mainly concerned with the implementation of those technologies for the improvement of productivity, value creation as well as for data insight.

Industrial Artificial Intelligence Application

Artificial intelligence has a vast range of applications at an industrial level especially in engineering industries such as the mechanical engineering industry, chemical engineering industry, civil engineering industry, and electrical engineering industry. Industrial artificial intelligence applications promise to improve human experience along with better business results.

How AI is applied in the Engineering Industry

The mechanical engineering industry is the primary consumer of artificial intelligence as it has implemented artificial intelligence more than any other industry. Most engineering works and mechanical designs utilize AI-infused equipment like robots, sensor technology, and automation. In the electrical engineering industry, AI is employed in many fields like simulation, fault detection, load prediction, construction of adaptive controllers, and state estimation. 

In the civil engineering industry, artificial intelligence is used for smart construction, better design of buildings, project planning, risk reduction, offsite construction and post-construction problem detection along with their solution. The chemical engineering industry uses artificial intelligence in chemical process optimization, process modeling, process control as well as fault diagnosis and detection.

Equipment Maintenance

The most common application of industrial artificial intelligence is forecasting maintenance which is the ability to predict when any equipment failure is going to happen. This ultimately reduces the cost of downtime and maintenance. Field operations supported by AI include:

  • Generation of forecasted maintenance recommendations
  • Quality issues analysis
  • Sharing as well as interpreting performance data
  • Interpreting quality-related data such as guarantee information and customer feedback
  • Routine Process automation

Manufacturing

The manufacturing industry make use of AI in a variety of ways. In manufacturing, AI is implemented at different stages of operations starting from planning to the final product design. Artificial intelligence implemented robots are an integral part of the manufacturing field that assists in the production of quality products. 

Testing

AI plays a key role in the development accurate models of systems and objects that help to design realistic models that ultimately can be used to run functioning simulations. So, artificial intelligence provides aid for the physical prototyping of systems as well as objects. AI algorithms are also utilized to detect production faults.

Marketing Products and Sales

Ai is used to predict trends in the world of sales. Along with forecasting demand trends, AI assists in micro-targeted marketing, creates bot aided self-service support, bot assisted self- service order and power sales. AI has also been employed to customize services as well as products. In marketing and sales, it is used to create AI-powered content like profit and loss summaries, business reports and stock insights.

Transportation

The transportation industry has been revolutionized by the implementation of AI-infused systems. In supply chain management, foreboding analytics and artificial intelligence are being employed to make processes more robust. AI robots are also used in warehouses for packaging and sorting. Artificial intelligence algorithms are also used to support delivery and to find the best routes for a shipment.

E-Commerce

E-commerce is the main area where the use of artificial intelligence obvious to the user end.  Artificial intelligence has made it easy for organizations to understand and find patterns in the behavior of their customers so they can remain competitive.

In product recommendations, complex artificial algorithms are used to make it easy for customers to select products they. AI is also used to increase customer experience. For example, AI-powered chatbots on websites provide customer support and answer common customer queries.

Healthcare

In the healthcare sector, AI technology plays a vital role to improve many services. AI-powered equipment is used for better diagnosis, treatment and identifying the patterns of medical conditions. It is also used in drug discovery, medical imaging, robotic surgery, and medication management.

Artificial intelligence is increasingly being used for drug delivery. Remarkable improvements in computational power coupled with advancements in AI technology could be utilized to revolutionize the drug development process.

Challenges with Implementing AI

Here are some of the major challenges facing the AI industry:

  • Gathering enough data for training so that the system can respond accurately when anything goes wrong is a challenge for AI Systems.
  • Testing AI systems in actual systems requires money and time as these are extremely complex processes.
  • To optimize AI-infused systems large state spaces are required.
  • Regulatory compliance can be a barrier for the use of AI.
  • As experts are required for the implementation of industrial AI, it can be costly to find the expertise needed to implement it.
  • The cost of change and failure of any AI-infused system is extraordinarily high.

In summary AI has its pros and cons. If the right AI strategy is used, it can turn minor improvements of systems into gigantic returns. But if it is not implemented correctly is comes can create more difficulties.