I Think I Need AI! What is AI?

Manufacturers of all sizes struggle with the cost of poor product quality, whether that translates into slower production, decreased profits, or unnecessary waste. Even worse, poor quality can do irreversible damage to brand reputation. In the food and beverage market, 20 percent of consumers say they will not purchase from a brand following a product recall. While artificial intelligence (AI) is gaining favor as a solution to quality problems, it brings a number of new, sometimes confusing, terms. As a first step, many manufacturers ask "What is AI?" Machine vision is a mainstay on today's manufacturing floor, thanks to programmers' ability to continuously train inspection systems to make automated decisions.