AIMS 2025: AI Manufacturing & SCADA Technology conference was held in Pittsburgh on August 25-27. Norrin’s Head of North American Operations, Veikko Saikkonen, attended.
On the final days of summer, I exchanged my safety boots and high-visibility vest to something more casual and traveled to North America’s leading industrial AI conference. Held in Pittsburgh, known as “Steel City” due to its historical ties to steel production, the conference brought together around 400 leading experts in the field to discuss the role of AI in manufacturing.
I was joined by other members of Norrin’s US office, and for three days we had the opportunity to talk shop and to introduce new people to our “From shop floor to back office” approach to industrial AI.
I also had the pleasure of joining one of the panels to discuss ideas on how SMEs can get started on their AI journey.
Here are my main observations from the trip.
The Big Stage - How does US Manufacturing differ from Finland?
Coming from Finland, the US, both as a country and a market, can seem incomprehensibly large. And if you look at the frontrunners of digitalization and AI, like Amazon, it might skew you to think they are also way ahead of us on the AI front.
But based on the conference, and my few years of experience running Norrin’s US office, that’s not the case.
In fact, while there might be more enthusiasm for AI’s potential business benefits, the mid-sized manufacturing businesses in the US are in many ways quite similar to their counterparts in Finland.
And when it comes to the prerequisites for effective AI utilization (such as data infrastructure and digitalization in general) Finnish companies may even have a slight edge.
The one thing us Finns could learn from the Americans, however, is to be more open to experimentation. We tend to focus solely on the costs and overlook the benefits, whereas US companies are the exact opposite. If an ROI has been calculated and the business benefits are deemed sufficient, Americans are likely to invest in AI pilots.
Everybody wants to know about AI Agents
As in every other industry, AI Agents were a hot topic of discussion. Almost everyone I spoke with was keen to hear about how agents could be utilized in manufacturing and especially to learn about real-world use cases.
I had many good conversations about using agents as a more personalized and customizable extension to current BI tools in production planning, different phases of the sales process etc. With access to better and more diverse data, agents can help decision-makers adapt more effectively to changes in both business operations and the market.
The Return of MLOps
MLOps was widely discussed a few years ago but it then fell out of the hype cycle, replaced first by LLMs and then by agentic AI. Many of us consultants assumed that ML applications had already been implemented, and the field had settled.
But if the conference showed anything, it’s that MLOps is definitely back. Many giants of the manufacturing industry arrived at our booth with successful PoCs in areas such as predictive maintenance and process optimization but were stuck on how to scale those solutions to the next 10 or 20 sites and production lines.
Expect to see massive scaleups in MLOps among the industry leaders in the next few years.
Panel Discussion: "Industrial AI 101: A Practical Guide for SMEs to get Started
I also joined a panel discussion offering practical advice for manufacturers beginning their AI journey. My perspective was that of a consultant while the other panelists represented the industry side.
My main message was simple: start small and use early victories to gain momentum for further development.. Most manufacturers already have enough data available to implement multiple AI solutions that generate real business benefits.
The industry insiders had similar insights. They stressed the importance of overcoming inertia, gaining early buy-in from top management and having an internal champion to drive AI projects within the company.
All of them also mentioned the importance of having a good partner that can provide the framework and the technical delivery capability to turn your ideas and plans into practical solutions.
Closing Thoughts: We are on the Right Track, but we need to Ramp Up
After three days in Pittsburgh, it was time to head back to our Atlanta office. The trip was both fun and informative, and I came back with a lot of insights.
The manufacturing industry in the US is rapidly adapting to AI. Finnish companies are well equipped to do the same, but we need to be a bit more adventurous and a bit less risk averse.
Start small, celebrate your successes, and use them to fuel the next round of experiments.
