AI technologies can be used in many fields, from maintenance and logistics to product and process development or resource planning. As part of Allianz Industrie 4.0 Baden-Württemberg , Fraunhofer IAO has recently released a concise study focusing on how this issue relates to production.

As it is often impossible to draw strict boundaries between various technologies, the categories were divided into “tool groups”: Text and speech processing, illustrating knowledge and semantics, image and sound processing, action planning, optimization, multidimensional pattern recognition and emotional recognition and intention analysis. It is usually possible to solve even complex problems by combining multiple tool groups. For example, an assistance system in production can be controlled with voice commands, while the data recorded can then be processed using semantic technologies for the purposes of system optimization. The study is intended to offer companies orientation regarding whether and how AI could be a useful tool for them.