Siemens and Microsoft Focus on AI ‘Efficiency’ — Sign of Impending Layoffs?

Key Takeaways

• Siemens and Microsoft are rolling out their industrial AI assistant globally.
• Siemens Industrial Copilot will be available to over 120,000 users.
• The rise of AI assistants in the engineering and manufacturing industries could lead to job losses.

Siemens and Microsoft are expanding the availability of their AI assistant for industrial applications: Siemens Industrial Copilot.

Microsoft said in a statement that the platform can “improve efficiency, cut downtime, and address labor shortages.” However, the long-term impact of AI tools on industrial workforces remains uncertain.

Siemens and Microsoft Promote Industrial Copilot

The collaboration between Siemens and Microsoft aims to address ongoing challenges in the manufacturing and engineering sectors by leveraging AI to optimize workflows and increase productivity. 

Over 100 companies, including Schaeffler and thyssenkrupp Automation Engineering (TAE), have already embraced the tool in Europe and the United States.

The expanded rollout will see Industrial Copilot made available to over 120,000 users of Siemens’ industrial software programs, which include design, process control, and operations intelligence.

Are Industrial Jobs at Risk?

Regarding the Industrial Copilot expansion, Microsoft emphasized its potential to streamline workflows, “reducing manual effort and addressing the skilled labor shortage.”

Labor shortages have certainly plagued industrial sectors such as manufacturing, which has suffered from a high number of vacancies since the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, as of January 2024, there were 622,000 total manufacturing job openings, representing nearly a 20% shortage.

Nevertheless, the implications of Microsoft’s statement that AI could perform at least some of the same tasks as skilled laborers raise the prospect of some workers becoming redundant. 

More Factory Automation

Crucially, Industrial Copilot won’t just affect desk-based jobs most commonly associated with the AI productivity boost. 

Microsoft’s announcement highlights the example of TAE, which used the platform to develop systems for battery production. The announcement hints at the technology’s potential to accelerate industrial automation on the factory floor.

In TAE’s case, Industrial Copilot was used to build a battery testing process that relies on integrated sensors, cameras, and measurement systems to monitor battery quality.

This process essentially performs work that would otherwise require human workers. 

Of course, industrial automation is a constant march toward ever-greater efficiency. However, occasionally, a technology arrives that embodies such giant leaps in efficiency that it results in widespread job losses.

This was the impact automatic weaving looms had on the textile industry in the mid-nineteenth century or the effect of industrial robots on the automotive manufacturing industry in the late twentieth century.

Whether AI will spur such a transformative efficiency boost for industries today remains to be seen.

If it does, platforms like Industrial Copilot might be remembered as the power loom of our times.