Schneider Electric uses AI to help factory workers, not replace them

In short: Schneider Electric is rolling out AI tools in manufacturing to make workers and engineers more productive, with humans still making the final calls.

What's going on

Schneider Electric, a French industrial company, is using artificial intelligence to support workers instead of cutting large numbers of jobs. The company says the goal is to take over repetitive desk work and routine checks, so people can focus on harder problems.

One example is an “industrial copilot,” which works like a helpful assistant inside Schneider’s engineering software. It can draft control settings, generate bits of code, and produce documentation, which is the written record engineers must keep. Schneider says this has saved engineering teams up to 50% of the time spent on some configuration and paperwork, and that some production line changes that used to take weeks can now be done in hours.

Schneider is also using AI in day-to-day operations. Predictive maintenance uses sensor data to spot patterns that suggest a machine may fail soon (like noticing a car making a new sound before it breaks down). The company also uses “digital twins,” which are virtual copies of a factory setup, so teams can test changes on a screen before touching the real equipment.

Schneider reports broader results across some deployments, including a 10% inventory decrease, a 6-day reduction in days-in-inventory, and an average 15% yield improvement on certain lines.

What to watch

This approach depends on clean, consistent factory data, which is still hard to pull together across many systems. Over time, the bigger question is how many tasks shift away from humans, and whether companies like Schneider share clearer job and headcount outcomes as AI spreads.

Source: NYTimes