Robotics Expert Cautions Leaders to Plan Carefully Amid Manufacturing Boom

A tsunami of investment is poised to crash over the manufacturing sector, driven by a global race for supply chain sovereignty and a massive rebuilding of local production. Yet, amidst this impending wave of transformation, leaders are grappling with the pervasive hype around artificial intelligence, creating a difficult balancing act for those planning the factory of the future.

Robert Little, the Chief of Robotics Strategy at Novanta Inc., a board member for the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), and the former CEO of ATI Industrial Automation, has spent his career translating technological promise into practical reality. He suggests that for leaders to succeed, their focus should hinge on understanding AI as a practical tool, not getting caught up in the trending wave. As he puts it, "It's a tsunami. The water evacuates off the beach, and you have this beautiful shoreline to walk out on, not realizing that a tidal wave of investment is about to come crashing in."

• A dose of reality: The first problem, Little says, is that marketing often outpaces reality, leading to a fundamental misunderstanding of what AI truly is. He draws a bright line between genuine artificial intelligence and the more common "intelligent software" that powers many of today's systems. "We are at a very young stage with no set precedent, and we often confuse the hype with reality," he explains. "Good software can use 'if-then' logic based on sensor information. That doesn't mean it's AI, but it can be confused with it, and it's very possible the people selling it could call it AI."

• Predictive powerhouse: But cut through the noise, and a genuinely powerful application comes into view. For Little, AI's most practical value in a factory setting is its power to process overwhelming amounts of data to methodically forecast future events and find patterns a human team would miss. "AI's value is that it's predictive. It can learn from past information to figure out future events and, in doing so, find things that were not seen before."

Harnessing AI's predictive power, however, demands a deeply cautious approach. In Little's view, the public narrative is skewed by an enthusiasm for success that often masks a high rate of failure, leading to a dangerous "fear of missing out" (FOMO) that can result in costly missteps. "We see successes because people are very enthusiastic about showing successes. They're not enthusiastic about showing failures," he notes. He cautions against being an early adopter, especially for those with tight budgets. "When you're the first to use a new technology, your risk is extremely high. If you're the early adopter and your bank account is tight, that's not a good scenario."

• Learn before you leap: Instead, success is more likely found through a disciplined and patient process of education and analysis, especially when AI's accuracy can be a black box. Little advises, "I would push staff to learn, not to use. Go through a period of learning and evaluation prior to the implementation of any AI model, as the chances of failure are relatively high." He emphasizes the importance of due diligence: "When you're trying to implement something, you rely on the people who say it can be done. But do your homework and check out the validity of their argument. In the end, it's still a risk."

• Vet your vendors: Little's measured approach reframes the role of a facility leader, where the expert evaluation of technology partners becomes a vital skill. AI, he explains, won't typically be developed in-house by factory staff but will come packaged within vendor equipment. "AI will come from vendors. The evaluation of the vendor's equipment and its ability to perform the task is still the most important job for a factory."

The vendor ecosystem is a high-stakes, competitive environment. Robotics startup FieldAI recently secured more than $400 million in funding from investors like Jeff Bezos and Nvidia, highlighting the immense amount of money flowing into the space. Little observes a fierce race to market where companies are trying to gain an edge. "I am seeing people trying to use AI to monopolize their equipment. The theory is if I can be first to market, I can shut out my competitors. There are also country-by-country issues, where China is trying to produce robotics and AI models that are so inexpensive and easy to use that they shut out foreign suppliers," he says, underscoring the geopolitical dimensions of this technological shift.

Little emphasizes that this focus on practical implementation is set against a backdrop of a national-scale industrial transformation. "There’s a general lack of understanding, even among manufacturers, that we’re in the midst of a new manufacturing revolution," he says. "This revolution is about rebuilding production capacity in countries like the U.S. and Germany, while also developing more localized supply chains to reduce dependence on overseas support and safeguard industrial sovereignty."

• Manufacturing mandate: "The amount of investment being tasked in America today is unfathomable," Little says. But even with hundreds of billions of dollars being tasked for manufacturing projects, there's still intense competition for resources. This massive build-out is also colliding with a well-documented labor shortage, especially in the manufacturing sector. Navigating an environment defined by scarcity isn't about speed, but about deliberate strategy. He predicts, "It's coming soon, and it's going to be a long-lasting tidal wave of investment to produce advanced, new factories in the U.S. and other Western democracies."

In an era defined by immense investment and rapid technological change, Little's message to manufacturing leaders is clear: success hinges not on a frantic race to adopt every new technology, but on pragmatic leadership, careful planning, and a deep understanding of both the opportunities and the risks. He advises, "It's easy for people to wish for success versus actually implementing it. As a business owner, I would be implementing new technology, but I would also be planning heavily and carefully evaluating."