Manufacturing AI in 2026 · what works on the floor

Most manufacturing AI pilots die at the gap between the demo and the line. The PLC is 20 years old, the network drops Wi-Fi at the press shop, and the operator wears gloves. AI that ignores any of those three doesn't ship. Here's what does.

Bet 1 · Vision QC on the line

A camera, an edge box (Jetson / industrial PC), and a defect classifier. Reads better than human at consistent flaws (scratch, mis-fill, misaligned label). Pays back in 6-9 months on any line where defects are >0.5% of throughput. Don't over-engineer · the model lives on the edge, syncs labels nightly, and falls back to 'pass everything' if the camera dies.

Bet 2 · Predictive maintenance from PLC + vibration data

Pull current draw, cycle time, vibration spectrum off the existing PLC + bolt-on accelerometer. Train per-asset. Forecasts bearing failure, motor degradation, gearbox wear 2-6 weeks ahead. Pays back the moment one unplanned stoppage costs more than the model spend (usually inside the first quarter).

Bet 3 · Operator copilots on plant SOPs

RAG on the plant SOPs + maintenance manuals + lessons-learned. Operator asks 'how do I clear this fault on line 3?', gets the right page in <2 seconds. Replaces 'who knows the trick for this machine' tribal knowledge with retrievable answers. Eval-gated so the answer always cites the source page · no hallucinated procedure is going to a press.

What to skip in 2026

• Digital-twin everything · the data fidelity isn't there for most plants and the maintenance burden is huge
• Fully-autonomous lines · you'll trade a known headcount cost for an unknown failure-mode cost
• Generative AI for CAD · the QA loop is where engineers earn their salary
• Generative process design · LLMs don't know what your plant can actually run

How we engage

Two-week shop-floor audit · we walk the line, talk to operators, look at one week of PLC logs. End of week two: a ranked list of 3-5 bets with payback estimate. Then a 6-12 week build for the top one. EU-compliant, NIS2-aligned, IEC 62443 posture · the manufacturing audit pack is part of the deliverable, not an upsell.