Speaking of AI and the workforce, IFS debuts partnerships to help close the skills gap

NEW YORK—Smart Industry has debuted in the last week two stories by our Sarah Mattalian and another by ARC Advisory Group's Craig Resnick and Inderpreet Shoker on the interplay that is emerging with AI as a replacement for human employees in global industry and the technology serving as an augmenter of their roles in the labor force and not so much the "job killer" that many fear.

The message here in the big city in Tribeca at IFS Industrial X, also covered by our colleague Thomas Wilk of our sister brand Plant Services, fell very much in the former category, with IFS announcing collaborations with Anthropic, Boston Dynamics, Siemens, 1X Technologies and others to drive smarter, safer, and faster operations, particularly at the technician and fieldworker level of the workforce.

In other words, AI as a collaborator with manufacturing employees, not as a replacement for them. That was the underlying message here from speaker after speaker at the IFS event on Nov. 13.

As Tom writes for his brand, IFS and partners Anthropic, Boston Dynamics, Siemens, and 1X Technologies, are aiming to (1) help asset- and service-centric operations achieve greater efficiencies, and (2) scale the impact on industrial technical people—the types of skilled positions that are increasingly difficult to fill in the current job market.

Podcast from IFS Unleashed: Focus on small, medium-size manufacturers

Each partnership was showcased at Industrial X Unleashed, a global event assembling the leading players in industrial AI who are driving growth, innovation, and standards that are transforming the world’s most critical industries.