"On October 20, 1984, The New York Times ran an article headlined, "GM Factory of the Future Will Run with Robots." In it, Roger Smith, then GM's CEO, claimed that automation would save the company from increasingly formidable Asian competitors. But that didn't happen. Smith's robotic factories struggled to match the productivity of their human-run counterparts. Robots sometimes painted each other instead of cars or welded doors shut. And they carried much higher costs."
"A recent report by our colleagues at MIT suggests that despite the $30 billion-$40 billion currently being invested in enterprise AI, 95% of pilots are getting zero return. Just as automation ultimately changed manufacturing, AI will undoubtedly reshape how companies operate; however, GM's experience highlights the pitfalls of not thinking about its implementation carefully. Throwing technology at problems without understanding how work gets done day-to-day is a surefire way to waste money and breed cynicism."
In 1984 GM's CEO Roger Smith predicted robots would protect the company from Asian competitors, but robotic factories underperformed, sometimes painting each other or welding doors shut, and incurred higher costs. Today many assemblies are robot-built, showing the idea was valid but execution flawed. A recent MIT report finds $30–$40 billion invested in enterprise AI while 95% of pilots yield zero return. AI will reshape business, yet replicating GM's mistake—deploying technology without understanding daily work—leads to wasted money and cynicism. Taiichi Ohno's concept of "autonomation"—automation with a human touch—offers a corrective.
Read at Fortune
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]