AI's impact on manufacturing: an interview with Keyvan Karimi, CEO of AMFG

"There's some problems where AI is a fantastic fit, but AI isn't the answer to every question."

I sat down with Autonomous Manufacturing (AMFG)’s founder and CEO, Keyvan Karimi, to discuss how he thinks the advancements in artificial intelligence will impact the manufacturing industry in the near future.

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With a background in Business and Technology across digital commerce (Otto Group, M&S), automotive (BCA) and banking (Lloyds Bank), Keyvan Karimi is the leading force at the helm of AMFG.

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September 11th, 16:30 BST.

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Rosie: Thank you so much for joining me. For those who don't know, would you mind telling me a little bit about who you are and how you entered the manufacturing space?

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Keyvan: Absolutely. I founded AMFG back in 2014, and we're a very simple business really, we have a very singular vision to automate manufacturing operations. Hence our company name being “Autonomous Manufacturing”. So we're very obsessed with the idea of bringing modern technologies; automation, digital technology, and now AI, into the manufacturing space and helping manufacturers and machine shops improve their efficiency, and their business as a whole.

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Speaking of AI, what are you most excited about when you think of how AI is going to impact our industry?

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I think this is such an exciting time for manufacturing. If we take a step back, the political and regulatory landscape has evolved so much over the last few years. Both the US and, to some degree, Europe have decided that having a strong manufacturing base, a strong industrial base, is critical to society, the economy, and I think most importantly, national security. So how do we bring manufacturing back and build up and strengthen that industrial base? I think the regulatory framework and the policy environment has really helped. There's no question about that, but I think it requires a lot of innovation to drive that path forward and to accelerate and to regain that competitiveness in North America and Europe. And I think AI will be a key driver to that.

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With AI becoming part of our daily lives, how do you think machine shops and manufacturing companies can work with automation software and AI without losing the human ability to innovate?

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I truly think that AI is such a groundbreaking technology. We've seen over the last two years how quickly it can develop, but really AI has been developing in the background for quite a while. You know we see open AI, we see Google and a range of other companies building these large language models. And now we're seeing, at the application level, companies adopting these technologies such as AMFG, and really driving the next level of innovation forward.

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Now, if we think of people and skills, I think there are two truths to it, because there’s the whole topic around for instance, digital twins, digital manufacturing, there has been so much hype. But effectively, if you look at machine shops, how much have they truly benefited from digital twins and digital manufacturing, how much of that hype has translated into real life benefits? I think there's been some success, but there's also been plenty of disappointment in that area where machine shops just haven't benefited as much from the technology. And I think AI will play out differently, because the level of innovation, the level of automation that is feasible with AI, just makes the technology a lot more accessible. So from a skills perspective, we expect it to free up a lot of time, so that skilled engineers, machine operators, and machine shops can really focus on where the value is. And some of the administrative work, some of the smaller elements like repeatable tasks, can be automated now with AI.

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So do you think the advancements in AI and automation technology will help us solve the skills gap in the manufacturing industry?

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Yeah, that’s a very interesting question. There's obviously a lot of scary news at the moment in the media. You know, people being made redundant, companies letting some staff go because of the benefits of technology. I think there’s two ways of looking at it for machine shops and more generally, the manufacturing industry. It will create new jobs. Completely  new jobs will emerge, existing jobs will evolve, and I think there will be a net benefit. We've seen this with the internet. We've seen this with previous technology cycles where there's been a lot of that scary talk, but effectively, when we look back, we have created a lot of jobs. We have, and companies have benefited from it, and society as a whole has evolved. I think we'll see the same thing with AI so I’m very positive about it. And I think it is true that there will be a level of disruption, but I think there'll be a net benefit to the labor force and to society as a whole.

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How do you think AI is going to affect AMFG, specifically? I mean, how do you see it transforming the company? Where do you see us going in the next, I don't know, 10, 20 years?

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For me, from my perspective it’s the most exciting time possible. The pace of innovation is accelerating. These large language models are super exciting and the possibilities are incredible. So we are super hyped, and we are really driving that agenda very hard in the company. We’re setting up more and more engineering teams that are centered around AI, and most of our research projects are centered around AI. Just last week, we were awarded a project by UK Space centered around AI for space applications, and that's not unique. There's all sorts of AI projects and developments leveraging the technology we have now, and we'll see this play out over the next three, six months, and over a longer period. I think a great advantage we have is, we have fantastic foundational data in the company and in the system, and fantastic customers that are doing cutting edge work. Machine shops are doing phenomenal work and working alongside us, partnering with us on that journey. So we're very, very excited.

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"Look at machine shops, how much have they truly benefited from digital twins and digital manufacturing, how much of that hype has translated into real life benefits?"

Do you think people need to have technical backgrounds, a degree in computer science for example, to use this type of software? Or is it accessible to everyone?

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Well, AMFG as an organization is very engineering focused. Most of our teams are engineers. We have mechanical engineers, we have software engineers, but that's us as an organization. If I think of the users of AMFG, of our customers, it's very interesting, because some say that English is the new programming language, and today you can use the English language to write prompts using AI. So, actually AI is making technology more accessible in that regard. Obviously, you need to know what you're writing, and you need to have the right ways of thinking about what you want from the system. But in many ways, AI is making it more accessible, where previously you needed to do coding, you can now express yourself with natural languages to achieve a result.

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So would you say that shops can trust automation software and artificial intelligence to handle their scheduling and their quoting, let it run and walk away. Or do you think we're not quite there yet with the technology?

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You know, we've been experimenting a lot in that area. We have attempted AI only solutions to a problem. We have used a purely mathematical approach to a problem, and also a combination. And quite a few disappointed customers, from other solutions, have come to us and said, “Look, I don't trust AI, because every time I import a CAD file, it's giving me a different result, and nobody can explain why that is” and I think that points to an ineffective use of AI in the market. I think the way we approach that is, effectively, there's some problems where AI is a fantastic fit, but AI isn't the answer to every question, and in manufacturing consistency is very key. You want to have consistency in your quoting and a level of consistency in your production scheduling. So we use very intelligent algorithms that are fundamentally based on advanced mathematics to achieve that consistency. But then we use AI where mathematics cannot help you, where we can really go into, for instance, predicting how many people will show up in the factory tomorrow. What are the lead times for my material? Have I had a similar part job before? There's some questions where AI is fantastically placed to answer, and that feeds into an overall solution. But then there are other questions or other problems that should be solved using a different type of technology. So we combine a mathematically focused approach with AI, to get the best of both worlds, to ensure that there's consistency in the quoting process so that our customers can really trust the system and understand how costs were estimated, how production scheduling was set. It needs to be explainable and we're very proud of that.

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So what would you say makes AMFG's use of artificial intelligence unique?

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In our product category what we're really, truly proud of is two things. We are the world's best at extracting data from CAD and 2D drawings. So analyzing a 2D drawing, analyzing a CAD model to the finest level of detail, and then using intelligence to interpret that data. That's really a core strength of AMFG and a lot of the intelligence, a lot of the solutions are then built on top of that. The other area is around production where we're using that intelligence, the data we extracted from the CAD file and from the drawings, to really generate fantastic production recipes and take them into execution. So I would say at the core, getting fantastic data from CAD, from 2D drawings, there's a lot of intelligence around it. That's our key strength and that's where we are using the combination of mathematically based algorithms with AI to really get the benefits out of it.

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It sounds like we’re all in for a very exciting journey!

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Oh definitely. All of us at AMFG, but also everyone in the manufacturing industry, will see the world change dramatically in the next few years, and we’re all excited to be a part of it.

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This interview has been edited for length.

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About AMFG

AMFG works with high-mix, low volume manufacturers across the globe, streamlining their operations with our cutting-edge software platform. Our scalable tools automate all stages of manufacturing operations, providing automatic quoting and order management. Using our software, our clients can adapt to complex demand with efficiency and precision, securing their place at the forefront of the manufacturing industry.

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