Manufacturing Dive: Ciarán O’Mara on why AI pilots stall on the plant floor

Protex AI co-founder and Chief Product and Technology Officer Ciarán O’Mara features in Manufacturing Dive’s latest report on how plant managers are handling the AI and automation boom, alongside leaders from Pella, Hexion and Augury.

The piece looks at a familiar gap: most manufacturers have experimented with AI, but far fewer have seen a clear return. Ciarán argues the problem is rarely the technology itself. Plant managers who have spent decades running lines are now expected to become AI experts overnight, and most projects fail because nobody works out how AI fits into the way a plant actually operates.

His advice is to take a “retrofit, not rebuild” approach, using tools that work with the systems a site already has. He also points to where budgets are shifting: less toward models and platforms, and more toward the people and processes that make AI work, from cleaning up siloed data to setting clear ownership and accountability for what the technology produces.

Read the full article on Manufacturing Dive →

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