A key industry theme as of late has been the convergence of generative artificial intelligence and the next-gen cloud. A formidable combination, it is set to holistically revamp a slew of vertical industries — from healthcare to health sciences, FinTech and manufacturing.

Gen AI marks an inflection point, unlocking the latent value of data. The specialized nature of data in vertical industries becomes a catalyst for better results when harnessed with generative AI — hence the “smart manufacturing” concept, according to Doug Bellin (pictured), worldwide head of smart manufacturing at Amazon Web Services Inc.

“I think manufacturing is an incredibly interesting market [for] a couple of reasons,” he explained. “One, manufacturing is the largest producer of data and most people don’t think about that — but it’s locked down, it’s disparate and it doesn’t talk to each other. While we’re the largest producer of that data, we’re the smallest consumer of that data. So there’s a huge opportunity for us to actually start using that data, creating value in this market.”

Bellin spoke with theCUBE industry analyst John Furrier at the “Supercloud 5: The Battle for AI Supremacy” event, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the parallels between the evolution of generative AI and the paradigm shift to smart manufacturing.

Smart manufacturing: Its evolution and present-day challenges

Smart manufacturing implies an amalgam of the several techniques used in data science and AI to create new processes and streamline existing ones, all for use in the factories of the future. Its goal is to monitor production using connected machinery and improve manufacturing performance by identifying automation opportunities.

The inflection point to bring smart manufacturing to the mainstream is near, but not quite here yet, according to Bellin. Manufacturing, as the largest producer of data, faces challenges with disparate and locked-down data sources, further affecting the ability to consume this data. That is the key barrier to smart manufacturing becoming the norm.

“It has been that evolution of starting with first cloud and manufacturing being miles away from each other and every manufacturer going, ‘I’m never going to do that’, and now they’re going, ‘Why am I not doing that? Help me accelerate and get into here faster as we go forward,'” Bellin explained.

To that end, a significant shift identified in the manufacturing landscape is the rise of citizen developers. Traditionally, data scientists were the gatekeepers of data wrangling and interpretation. However, the emergence of low-code, no-code platforms, exemplified by the partnership with Siemens AG’s Mendix, is empowering individuals on the shop floor to create applications, Bellin noted.

“If you look at some of the partner offerings out there, we’ve got a great partnership with a Siemens division called Mendix which is low code, no code and what they’re able to do is allow a person on the shop floor to make an application,” he explained. “In the past, guys on the shop floor would be going, ‘I just need to use the application,’ But now they’re not waiting for the person to bring it to them, so they’re looking and going, ‘Let me just build this right now because I know where the data is.'”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the “Supercloud 5: The Battle for AI Supremacy” event:

Photo: SiliconANGLE