US maintains edge over China in industrial artificial intelligence solutions

US-based industrial manufacturers are slightly ahead of their Chinese counterparts in integrating artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities into their operations, even though both countries have a near-equal number of installed bases of AI-enabled devices, according to global tech market advisory firm ABI Research. Both countries are incentivized to develop approaches that encourage AI adoption in industrial manufacturing, but "the US has managed to achieve more momentum," according to Lian Jye Su, principal analyst. This is due to "acute challenges in manpower and rising cost of materials. So they need to adopt AI to make sure they can overcome these challenges." SEE: Deep learning: An insider's guide (free PDF) (TechRepublic) In China, manufacturers can still rely on "abundant human resources and government tax incentives to compete in the international market, keeping their margin healthy,'' Su added. The expensive US labor force has driven the industrial sector to enhance production efficiency and lower operational costs. This is prompting the major cloud service providers, smart manufacturing platform vendors, pure-play industrial AI platform and service providers, edge industrial AI gateway, and server and chipset vendors to partner to bring AI into industrial manufacturing, he explained. The partnerships are enabling an "end-to-end, cloud-to-edge solution to enhance operational efficiency, reduce bottlenecks and optimize resource consumption in factories," he said. AI is predominantly used in two areas: Overall efficiency enhancement and machine vision for inspection, production, and surveillance, according to Su. "For example, Instrumental is using images of printed circuit board to train their AI model in order to identify faults and low quality production on the smartphone production line,'' he said.