From steam engines to conveyor-belt assembly lines and robots on the factory floor, the manufacturing industry has long been a pioneer of new technologies. Artificial intelligence now looks set to become the next and, perhaps, biggest leap forward. But what will it mean for jobs over the next decade?

Use cases: controlling plants, recommending equipment fixes, designing products, assembling parts

Manufacturing is already highly automated, with sensors, software and computer networks monitoring the output, data, pressure and temperature of factory machines and industrial processes. Such connectivity has become essential on sites that are sometimes square miles wide.

“In a refinery or petrochemical plant, there can be thousands — if not tens of thousands — of instruments, equipment and valves [needed] to, for instance, manage 250,000 to 500,000 barrels of oil per day and process that into gasoline,” points out Jason Urso, chief technology officer in the software division of Honeywell, a US industrial conglomerate.