Trade disputes, high energy costs, and a growing shortage of technical personnel. Pressure on the technical industry is mounting. Productivity must increase, production must become more energy-efficient and sustainable, and international competition is fierce. There is an urgent need for greater knowledge of and implementation of innovative AI solutions. 

AI in the Engineering Industry 

AI is already widely used in the industry. Consider predictive maintenance, quality control, production process optimization, adaptive robots, and generative AI. Two trends in particular are having a major impact: the growth of adaptive and cognitive robots, and the rapid development of generative AI and AI agents. This is moving us toward the “lights-out factory”—a factory that operates largely autonomously. Employees’ roles are shifting from execution to management, coordination, and decision-making. 

Vision 

A large portion of the technical industry—especially small and medium-sized enterprises—is still not making sufficient use of existing AI technology. That is why, within AIC4NL’s Technical Industry focus area, we bring together industry, research institutions, and government. In this way, we accelerate both the development of new AI technology and the implementation of existing applications. A focus on human-AI interaction and adoption by employees is an integral part of this effort.

There’s a lot of talk about AI, but not enough action—even in the technical industry. We bring companies, research institutions, and schools together to work on real projects with real-world use cases.

Raimond Elias, Technical Industry Practice Leader.