Manufacturers need to embrace artificial intelligence (AI) or risk missing out on transformational business benefits, members of South East-based METALL (The Manufacturing Engineering and Technology Alliance) heard at their latest meeting.
AI expert Vincent Murphy, founder of Brainstorm, demonstrated how readily available AI tools can transform business processes, including product design, materials science, supply chain efficiency, productivity and workflow optimisation.
He demonstrated how to use a general chat model to tackle, in real time, member queries such as reducing sales lead times while encouraging those living in ‘exponential angst’ to ‘talk to AI.’ “You don’t know what it can do until you try it,” he said.
Vincent referenced a recent IoT-Analytics report, which highlighted that manufacturers employing AI-driven predictive maintenance can achieve accuracy near 50% in anticipating equipment issues, translating to a potential 50% reduction in downtime.
This approach also yields a 25–35% saving on maintenance costs. Yet despite this growing evidence of AI’s benefit to industry, one in 10 manufacturers still do not engage, whilst the majority skirt around the edges.
“An increasing number of publicly available AI advanced reasoning models can often achieve in less than twenty minutes what it previously took a PhD researcher to accomplish in 2-3 weeks,” said Vincent.
“This is not just another technology; we are increasingly within an ever-shortening window, potentially just two to three years away, of witnessing the advent of Average General Intelligence, with a subsequent societal impact easily on par with the printing press.”
METALL is supported by accountants Carpenter Box, lawyers DMH Stallard and NatWest Bank. Their events provide opportunities for manufacturing, engineering and technology businesses to share best practice, network with each other and benefit from growth opportunities.
The alliance covers a geographical area from South Surrey to the South Coast, including Gatwick Diamond.
