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Forbes
01-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
AI In Manufacturing: Copilots Or Agents?
Raj Badarinath is Chief Product & Marketing Officer at Rootstock Software, a recognized leader in the Manufacturing Cloud ERP space. In the race to adopt AI in manufacturing, companies face a pivotal choice: Should AI act as a copilot—assisting human workers—or take the wheel entirely as an autonomous agent? It's a question that gets to the heart of AI's role in industry. While AI has already proven its ability to boost productivity, streamline operations and reshape decision-making, the question remains: How much control should we give it? The 2025 AI in Manufacturing Survey, conducted by Researchscape, offers a telling answer. A clear majority of manufacturers prefer copilots (53%) over agents (22%), with the rest undecided. That signals a strong preference for AI that augments human decision-making rather than standing in place of it. This debate isn't just about comfort—it's about the trust we place in AI and its rapidly escalating role in manufacturing. Copilots are used to summarize vast troves of information and provide rapid recommendations—without making the final call. In manufacturing, support personnel can use copilots to summarize case histories, compose emails to prospects, personalize customer communications and more. It's easy to see why manufacturers appreciate this approach. Workers remain in control, AI remains in a supporting role and companies avoid the risk of fully autonomous decision-making. Findings from the previously mentioned survey highlight these trends: • 90% of manufacturers say AI is critical to the industry's future. • 77% have already implemented AI (up from 70% in 2023). • 82% plan to increase AI budgets in the next 12 to 18 months. These statistics show manufacturers aren't afraid of AI— they just want to ease into the role it will play rather than jump in headfirst. And there's another, more human reason: job security. One of the biggest concerns around AI in manufacturing is its potential to replace human workers. That concern is rising—17% of workers now fear AI will displace them, up from 12% in 2023. By contrast, copilots enhance productivity without eliminating workers, making them the preferred choice for those wanting to balance technological advancement with workforce morale. But copilots can only take manufacturers so far. If copilots are sidekicks, agents are independent operators—making decisions and executing tasks without human intervention. AI agents act as highly skilled assistants, sifting through massive data sets, identifying inefficiencies and flagging potential issues. In manufacturing, they analyze supply chains, predict machine failures, optimize production schedules and help workers make more informed decisions, faster. In theory, agents can dramatically boost efficiency by: • Automatically adjusting production schedules to reduce bottlenecks. • Managing real-time supply chain logistics without oversight. • Detecting and resolving equipment failures before downtime occurs. The potential is enormous. Companies that fully embrace AI-driven autonomy could slash costs, increase speed and improve accuracy. Yet, manufacturers are holding back—mainly due to trust and risk. While copilots assist in decision-making, agents take direct action, raising the following concerns: • What if an agent makes the wrong call? • How do we ensure AI aligns with ethics, quality and human intuition? • Who is accountable if an autonomous agent fails? Today's manufacturers are keeping humans in the loop as they lean toward copilots, but three trends suggest that full AI autonomy may be coming sooner than we think: • Smarter AI Decision-Making. AI isn't just getting faster—it's becoming more capable. Advances in machine learning and generative AI mean that AI can now analyze, adapt and learn from past decisions, making it increasingly reliable in complex scenarios. Gartner predicts that by 2028, at least 15% of daily work decisions will be made by autonomous AI agents. • The Rise Of Hybrid AI Models. Manufacturers may not need to choose between copilots and agents—they'll likely use both. Imagine a person overseeing a network of agents and copilots, ensuring human oversight while automation handles repetitive tasks. This hybrid AI approach allows companies to keep workers in control while automating lower-level tasks, improve efficiency without surrendering decision-making to AI and scale AI adoption gradually, while reducing risk and resistance. • AI As A Solution To The Labor Shortage. Manufacturing faces a massive workforce gap: The sector may need to fill 3.8 million new jobs by 2033, according to Deloitte. AI can help fill the void. Copilots help less-experienced workers perform like seasoned experts, while agents fully automate tasks when workers aren't available. In an industry desperate for talent, the copilot versus agent debate may not be an either/or scenario but about using the right tool in the right situation. Right now, copilots are the safe bet—keeping workers in control while boosting productivity. But agents offer the next level of automation. In the near term, a hybrid approach is emerging that blends copilots and agents to minimize risk while maximizing efficiency. But make no mistake—the rise of autonomous AI agents is inevitable. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
Channel Post MEA
27-03-2025
- Channel Post MEA
WD: 87% Actively Backup Their Content
Consumers have become more reliant on personal data for everything from health records, financial documents, home video and photos, social media videos and more, and many are realizing the importance of backing up data. Western Digital has announced the results of a global research study by Researchscape, where 87% of respondents cite that they backup their data automatically or manually. The top reasons for backing up personal data are fear of losing important files (83%), to free up space on their device (67%) and to protect against cyber threats (42%). 19% do it because they were told to. 'It's fantastic to see more people recognizing the importance of protecting their data,' said Nitin Kachhwaha, Director of Product Management at Western Digital. 'World Backup Day is an important yearly reminder to everyone to backup their data and to educate the people who still aren't aware of the impact of failing to backup. It's also an opportunity to reinforce just how critical it is to safeguard what matters most—because all it takes is one small accident for data to be lost forever. In fact, 63% of respondents have already experienced data loss due to device failure, accidental deletion or cyberattacks.' For those respondents who do not backup their personal data, 36% still think they don't need to backup their data, 30% don't have enough storage space, 29% think it takes too much time, and 23% don't know how. 63% of respondents agree that they would backup data more frequently if it was automatic and effortless. A dependable backup practice is to follow the 3-2-1 backup strategy, where consumers should have three copies of data, stored on two different types of media with one copy stored offsite, like in the cloud. With free cloud storage limits quickly maxing out, many consumers are turning to a hybrid approach to protect their data. In the survey, 78% of respondents reported that they rely on free cloud storage, 60% have run out of space in the past six months, and 56% have had to upgrade to paid plans. Additionally, 35% find cloud storage increasingly expensive. This is driving more people to adopt a combination of both cloud and local external storage to ensure data protection and cost efficiency. External HDD storage, offering up to 26TB in a single drive, provides a cost-effective solution to complement the cloud, and many consumers are already embracing this approach — 45% use an external HDD, while 19% rely on network-attached storage (NAS). By diversifying storage methods, users can maintain reliable backups while managing growing cloud costs. Western Digital provides consumers and businesses alike with easy-to-use data storage solutions that streamline the backup process and meet today's growing storage needs. Western Digital recently unveiled higher capacities across its portfolio, including a 26TB WD Red Pro CMR HDD for NAS environments and an entire suite of 26TB-based G-DRIVE and G-RAID external storage solutions for consumers, creative professionals and content creators to help protect and enable their digital workflows. Consumers can also back up their digital life and take data on-the-go with the WD My Passport, 20th Anniversary Edition with industry-leading 2.5' portable HDD capacity of up to 6TB. WD My Passport devices also include Acronis True Image for Western Digital software to more easily schedule backups of precious data. The results in this report are from an online survey of 6,118 respondents that was fielded from February 7 to 25, 2025 by Researchscape, an international market research consultancy. Respondents were from 10 different countries. 0 0
Tahawul Tech
27-03-2025
- Tahawul Tech
Western Digital Global World Backup Day survey finds a whopping 87% actively backup their content
Consumers have become more reliant on personal data for everything from health records, financial documents, home video and photos, social media videos and more, and many are realising the importance of backing up data. Western Digital today announced the results of a global research study by Researchscape, where 87% of respondents cite that they backup their data automatically or manually. The top reasons for backing up personal data are fear of losing important files (83%), to free up space on their device (67%) and to protect against cyber threats (42%). 19% do it because they were told to. 'It's fantastic to see more people recognising the importance of protecting their data', said Nitin Kachhwaha, Director of Product Management at Western Digital. 'World Backup Day is an important yearly reminder to everyone to backup their data and to educate the people who still aren't aware of the impact of failing to backup. It's also an opportunity to reinforce just how critical it is to safeguard what matters most—because all it takes is one small accident for data to be lost forever. In fact, 63% of respondents have already experienced data loss due to device failure, accidental deletion or cyberattacks'. For those respondents who do not backup their personal data, 36% still think they don't need to backup their data, 30% don't have enough storage space, 29% think it takes too much time, and 23% don't know how. 63% of respondents agree that they would backup data more frequently if it was automatic and effortless. A dependable backup practice is to follow the 3-2-1 backup strategy, where consumers should have three copies of data, stored on two different types of media with one copy stored offsite, like in the cloud. With free cloud storage limits quickly maxing out, many consumers are turning to a hybrid approach to protect their data. In the survey, 78% of respondents reported that they rely on free cloud storage, 60% have run out of space in the past six months, and 56% have had to upgrade to paid plans. Additionally, 35% find cloud storage increasingly expensive. This is driving more people to adopt a combination of both cloud and local external storage to ensure data protection and cost efficiency. External HDD storage, offering up to 26TB in a single drive, provides a cost-effective solution to complement the cloud, and many consumers are already embracing this approach — 45% use an external HDD, while 19% rely on network-attached storage (NAS). By diversifying storage methods, users can maintain reliable backups while managing growing cloud costs. Western Digital provides consumers and businesses alike with easy-to-use data storage solutions that streamline the backup process and meet today's growing storage needs. Western Digital recently unveiled higher capacities across its portfolio, including a 26TB1 WD Red® Pro CMR HDD for NAS environments and the WD My Passport, 20th Anniversary Edition with industry-leading 2.5' portable HDD capacity of up to 6TB. WD My Passport devices also include Acronis® True Image for Western Digital software to more easily schedule backups of precious data. In addition to these storage solutions, Western Digital is offering exclusive deals on some of its most popular backup products, making it even easier to protect and manage digital data. Top backup solutions at big discounts, available until March 31st. The results in this report are from an online survey of 6,118 respondents that was fielded from February 7 to 25, 2025 by Researchscape, an international market research consultancy. Respondents were from 10 different countries. For more information about Western Digital's storage portfolio, please visit 1One terabyte(TB) is equal to one trillion bytes. Actual user capacity may be less due to operating environment. Image Credit: Western Digital
