How Bringing Generative AI to the Shop Floor Increases Productivity, Helps Blue Collar Work Appeal to Gen Z

Summary

Hardly a day goes by without hearing about a new AI capability. But it was the arrival of Generative AI (Gen AI), found in tools such as ChatGPT, when the true potential benefits of AI started to go mainstream, bringing benefits for businesses and technology companies alike. While some pundits had Gen AI touching every facet of working practices, we are now seeing some clearly defined and valuable use cases coming to the forefront where Gen AI can be seen as a major productivity tool, and nowhere more than for workers on the shop floor!

The new AI-connected worker is overcoming problems caused by skilled worker shortages and making blue collar work appealing for Gen Z.

Welcome to manufacturing’s AI era

Faced with a shortage of skilled workers, attracting Gen Z workers to the shop floor, which has traditionally been seen as dull, dirty or dangerous (the three Ds of manufacturing), has proven an ongoing challenge. Then along came Gen AI, with new tech such as AV and VR, that has transformed the traditional shop floor into a productive–and cool–place to work.

Manufacturers need to work to the highest standards. That means training and reskilling frontline workers with different levels of knowledge, competence and language issues—all while keeping practices health and safety compliant for the new tech-enabled manufacturing era. Enter Gen AI and the new generation of connected worker platforms, where content creation and delivery are in their DNA.

Manufacturers historically struggle to deliver essential training content

From checklists and skills, to procedures and knowledge transfer—content creation isn’t a one-stop-shop. And with inflation on the rise—8.3% in the U.S. in 2023—taking workers away from their duties on the shop floor to create content is becoming a no-go area for management.

Creating content isn’t the only hurdle to overcome. Arguably, facilitating content retrieval on the shop floor is an even greater challenge.
 

The value of AI in retaining an empowered workforce

Bringing new technologies, such as connected worker platforms and Gen AI to the shop floor is transforming the dark and dirty shop floor into a more engaging workplace. But as more manufacturers aim to recruit Gen Z workers, it’s essential to ensure all instructions are available on digital platforms. Younger workers are tuned in to search for answers and instructions digitally—so making content available digitally is critical to retain these workers, and empower them to take ownership of their role—a growing necessity for the younger workforce!

AI is empowering workers to work smarter, not harder

1. AI-powered content transformation: Frontline workers need content that can be easily and quickly understood and assimilated. That means it needs to be in multiple formats such as text-based instructions—but creating all this content takes a lot of time and capital. And it’s not all about new content. Factories will already have thousands of existing content files such as standard operating procedures and work instructions but converting each one into an easily accessible location is also costly and time intensive.

The full value of connected worker solutions can take time to materialize due to the time and effort required to import and build the required digital work instructions into the platform. Here comes AI to the rescue!

Streamlining the creation or conversion of each type of content using AI-powered content transformation will drastically reduce the amount of time it takes to provide digital or written instructions in one secure location. The ability to convert documents in a matter of minutes, into easy to comprehend Digital Work Instructions from lengthy, written standard operating procedures, will reduce deployment times, allowing for faster time to value.

2. Seeing is believing–AI visual aids for video-based work instructions: Video is fast becoming one of the most consumed forms of content, especially for Gen Z. In fact, 57% of Gen Zers prefer to learn about new products by watching short-form videos.

So when it comes to creating digital work instructions, companies shouldn’t overlook the power of video to improve user engagement. But creating video-based instructions for shop floor workers is a challenge particularly for factories that lack sufficient financial and human resources.

But AI-powered video instructions changes all that. It can pull out relevant information and sequence it into structured written steps. Images can also be helpful to provide visual context at each step.

Workers can access a step-by-side visual guide on how to carry out a task. This helps to improve troubleshooting as operators can access a broader library of content. Younger workers can also benefit from the knowledge of senior operators in a way that engages them and meets their new workplace expectations.

3. Intelligent multilingual transcription: Immigrant workers account for 2.92M manufacturing workers in the U.S., and the majority of these workers will not speak English as their first language. Despite this, most global manufacturers struggle to ensure that critical operational content is available in all the languages of their diverse workforce. But not anymore! AI-powered transcription can break down global language barriers and encourage worker inclusion—by translating all types of content into the required language.
 
This is an intelligent capability that automatically translates the audio from videos into relevant subtitles in the preferred language of the user. Not only does this reduce the effort to create and maintain content, but it also improves the comprehension and retention of information leading to better safety, quality and productivity on the shop floor.

4. AI-powered search & text enhancements: Concise communication and comprehension is key to helping improve worker and team productivity. When you’re working in a fast-paced and loud manufacturing environment, errors are naturally going to happen. But what if workers had a tool that could intelligently interpret the user's input, and beautify it by automatically improving its grammar, vocabulary and punctuation to ensure optimal readability.
 
AI can empower workers to work smarter, not harder by providing them with intelligent search capabilities that not only grasps their inquiry's intent, but also adapts to human nuances like typos or vague terms. This ensures quick and accurate responses to inquiries like how to troubleshoot a broken mixing machine with a jammed mechanism. AI makes sure they are presented with the right information at the right time.
 
One of the first things Poka did this year was add embedded AI semantic functionality to improve their internal search engine on the Poka app—making it easier for users to find the content they need without needing to scroll through an entire content library, wasting valuable time on the frontline. A new “Ask a Question” functionality, enabled by Gen AI, takes this search capability one step further to empower workers on the shop floor. Users can skip the time-intensive process of sifting through pages of information and instead use Poka to find specific answers in a faster, and more intuitive way. This information sits within the knowledge articles created by the customer and will be referenced when searching for answers to eliminate any AI misinterpretations.
 

Don’t underestimate AI’s transformative capabilities to empower the connected worker

The future of manufacturing lies in the further integration of AI capabilities within primary systems such as connected worker platforms. As the technology continues to evolve, its potential to transform the manufacturing industry becomes even more evident.

Although the AI hype cycle is still running its course, every day valuable real-world applications appear, providing insights never before dreamed of and enhancing job skills from shop floor to top floor. The AI-enhanced connected worker is one of them.