AI enters its next act with inspections

Will AI take away our jobs, leaving us unemployed? While some jobs will indeed change or disappear--as they have always done and will continue to do--AI can also be a human force multiplier in business applications where we humans are still under-delivering. One set of jobs recently added to the endangered species list--so to speak--consists of collecting, storing and analyzing terabytes of drone footage of telecommunication towers, pipelines, solar panels, bridges and other structures where gathering data can be treacherous for humans. The repetitive operation of flying a drone--and analyzing the copious data collected by it--is a job prone to fatigue and errors. Pilots aside, analysts tasked with finding a crack in the 351st insulator inspected during the 25th drone mission of the day might be expected to tire. If cracks on insulators are not their life's passion, chances are they will eventually make a fatal or money-losing mistake.