AI Agents, Advanced Analytics, Quality Automation Will Be Put to Work to Address Worker Shortages, EHS Challenges and Product Recalls in the New Year
If 2024 was the year when manufacturers got serious about AI, then 2025 will mark the year when its value will be realized. From autonomous AI agents to AI-driven predictive analytics, AI will make its way across the enterprise – not just in robots and IoT sensors in the plant, but in the boardroom and quality department. Feeding on integrated data from the plant systems, and plant workers themselves, AI solutions will deliver actionable insights to help manufacturers, deliver better quality products, reduce defects, ensure greater plant safety and become more environmentally friendly. From quality management systems to enterprise resource planning solutions, AI-driven analytics will become embedded into every aspect of business.
AI, as well as digital advancements in quality management systems (QMS), ERPs and warehouse management systems couldn’t come at a better time. Rising product recalls, new environmental health & safety (EHS) mandates, worker shortages, an uncertain geopolitical climate and other issues are requiring a new level of intelligence to help manufacturers keep pace.
Below ETQ shares our top five predictions on the trends and tools shaping the new year in quality.
1. AI gets autonomous and predictive. While generative AI was all the rage in 2024, helping manufacturers write training manuals and documentation, create new processes or distill information from IoT sensors, there’s also a new ‘bot in town, in the form of AI agents and predictive quality analytics. Deloitte predicts that 25% of enterprises using GenAI are expected to deploy AI agents in 2025, growing to 50% by 2027. As autonomous systems, AI agents are distinct from automated systems, since they can operate on their own without human instruction. From enterprise-wide data, AI agents built into quality analytics tools can predict potential issues, manage production schedules or make autonomous decisions based on real-time information, minimizing downtime and maximizing productivity.
2. EHS goes into overdrive. Manufacturers have been committed to reaching core environmental, health & safety goals for several years now, but key industry trends will make it a critical requirement in the new year. A mantra of manufacturers everywhere is “Net Zero by 2050,” yet to achieve this, they need to begin to reduce carbon emissions and greenhouse gases produced in the production process now. Additionally, the very solution to gaining greater insights into the environment – AI – can be a contributor to bad environmental practices. AI requires large amounts of energy to produce, so as manufacturers deploy more AI solutions, they also need to be more mindful of their energy consumption and looks for ways to streamline it. According to Gartner estimates, the power required for data centers to run AI-optimized servers will reach 500 terawatt-hours (TWh) per year by 2027. Alternately, predictive quality analytics, driven by AI, can be used to mitigate the overuse of energy, enabling predictive maintenance to ensure machinery is running optimally.
3. A connected worker become an empowered worker. Frontline workers are directly involved in production processes and play a crucial role in maintaining and improving quality standards. The ETQ Pulse of Quality in Manufacturing survey found that in early 2024, 49% of respondents rated their training for frontline workers as “good,” while only 22% reported having “best-in-class” training programs. As a worker shortage continues, and employee experience becomes a key corporate tenet, manufacturers will increasingly recognize the unique role frontline workers in the plant play in improving enterprise-wide quality. They will provide them with the devices, tools and access to critical quality data that helps them become part of the decision-making process.
However, a worker shortage continues, and manufacturing has changed drastically in just a few years. As of 2023, the average tenure within the manufacturing workforce is only three years, and 50% of new employees leave manufacturing roles within the first 90 days. The skill and experience gap continues to grow, and improved employee experience becomes a key corporate ideology, the efforts put into empowering workers will improve and expand.
Connected Worker solutions provide frontline teams with real-time data to make faster, smarter decisions and gives them the ability to stay connected well-trained and productive, By keeping workers fully engaged with this technology they will focused on benefit from having the tools needed to automate workflows to quickly identify and resolve quality issues – all imperative to achieve quality success in 2025 and beyond.
4. Labor shortages require work-around solutions. The labor shortages we’ve been hearing about for a few years now will only accelerate as experienced workers reach retirement age and the new class of industrial talent continues to shrink. According to a report from Employee Benefit Research Institute, the number of workers in the U.S. labor force who are “prime working age” has significantly dropped off since the 1990s, and older workers now make up a greater share of the talent pool. More than ever, manufacturers will turn to AI and other digital tools not only to increase productivity but also to draw in a new generation of frontline workers, accustomed to using technology, and demanding its availability in the workplace. One way generative AI will be used is an enabler to bringing a new generation of workers up to speed, capturing the expertise of seasoned workers and supporting more effective training programs.
5. Product recalls. The 2024 ETQ Pulse of Quality in Manufacturing survey found that most respondents (73%) had experienced a product recall in the previous five years, with financial costs reaching $99.9M in the U.S. alone for each recall. As of November 2024, U.S. product recalls were on track to reach a six-year high, according to the latest Sedgwick U.S. Recall Index report. There will be no silver bullet to resolving the product recall crisis in 2025, but manufacturers will get smarter about how they prevent them from occurring in the first place. Quality management systems embedded with predictive quality analytics, as well as AI agents and more intelligent supply chains, will work together to enable predictive maintenance of equipment, weed out faulty parts and supplies and ensure a more automated process for performing root cause analysis when a problem occurs, and automated corrective action processes.
Despite the challenges of product recalls and worker shortages, there are many things for the manufacturing industry to celebrate in the new year. We’ll see a new generation of empowered frontline workers, connected to the enterprise and operating more strategically than ever before. And, a common thread through everything is automation — driven by quality systems, AI agents and predictive analytics — bringing out the very best in human expertise and driving us toward a safer, more resilient and quality -focused industry.
What are your predictions for the new year? We’d love to hear your thoughts. Please reach out to info@etq.com.
