  Rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have the potential to
significantly increase the productivity, quality, and profitability in future
manufacturing systems. Traditional mass-production will give way to
personalized production, with each item made to order, at the low cost and
high-quality consumers have come to expect. Manufacturing systems will have the
intelligence to be resilient to multiple disruptions, from small-scale machine
breakdowns, to large-scale natural disasters. Products will be made with higher
precision and lower variability. While gains have been made towards the
development of these factories of the future, many challenges remain to fully
realize this vision. To consider the challenges and opportunities associated
with this topic, a panel of experts from Industry, Academia, and Government was
invited to participate in an active discussion at the 2022 Modeling, Estimation
and Control Conference (MECC) held in Jersey City, New Jersey from October 3-
5, 2022. The panel discussion focused on the challenges and opportunities to
more fully integrate AI into manufacturing systems. Three overarching themes
emerged from the panel discussion. First, to be successful, AI will need to
work seamlessly, and in an integrated manner with humans (and vice versa).
Second, significant gaps in the infrastructure needed to enable the full
potential of AI into the manufacturing ecosystem, including sufficient data
availability, storage, and analysis, must be addressed. And finally, improved
coordination between universities, industry, and government agencies can
facilitate greater opportunities to push the field forward. This article
briefly summarizes these three themes, and concludes with a discussion of
promising directions.
