232: AI Agents for Manufacturing 101 Featuring Composabl CEO & Co-Founder Kence Anderson

An AI agent can create. It can predict. It can analyze data. But for it to really drive change and enhance operations, it needs to take action. That’s the next step of machine learning and AI, says Kence Anderson, CEO of Composabl, a company that helps manufacturers create multi-agent AI systems.

Our discussion with Kence is probably one of the most important you’ll hear on the podcast lately. AI has been a big topic for a while now, but we dig further into how it can be applied at an industrial level to help manufacturers and engineers make decisions and solve problems.

We start with Kence’s overview of AI agents, specifically in manufacturing, and talk about what drew him to this industry. Kence talks about how companies can find a balance between capturing data and also using expertise from your team (and why it’s crucial to do this before they start retiring!)

In this episode, find out:

• What is an AI agent and how could manufacturers implement them to take action?
• Ways AI agents can take how engineers and manufacturers already use machine learning to the next level
• Kence explains how he first entered the manufacturing world with a mechanical engineering degree and roles in startups
• Why Kence believes that high-value technology needs methodology combined with a platform to enable widespread adoption
• 3 reasons why AI in manufacturing has always fascinated Kence
• Why AI agents need to be taught specific information and why this enhances rather than restricts how they work
• The importance of collecting data but also interviewing experts in your team to gain their unique knowledge
• Kence shares an example of how an extruder making Cheetos is way harder than just programming a machine
• How Kence uses simulations to enable AI agents to practice and learn tasks before they’re implemented
• Where does the AI agent live? Kence gives a detailed explanation of how AI agents are stored and communicate with wider internal systems
• Different ways AI agents can not only be taught but also teach others
• The steps manufacturers need to take to start using AI agents and why the first one should be to identify the high-value skills in danger of extinction

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Tweetable Quotes:

• “ The thing that moves the needle is decisions. And so, if you're predicting something, analyzing something, it's only to serve the purpose of making great decisions.”
• “ You can have an AI just look at your data and discover a bunch of stuff that you know Susan and Joe over there could have told you in 15 minutes. So there's this need to capture and codify high-value subject matter expertise, frankly, before it goes extinct.”
• “There's a hundred million engineers out there in an industry that if you empower them with the right tools, they'll innovate and engineer systems the same way as they have everything else.”

Links & mentions:

• Composabl, a platform that combines the power of Composite AI with expertise to design and deploy multi-agent AI systems for industrial environments

Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.