AI is plateauing. That's actually great news for manufacturing.
In 2025 I've been hearing about AI smartness "slowing down."
And for the first time in years, I think that's a good thing.
Two leading AI minds had the following to say: Ilya Sutskever (SSI) said the scaling laws that fueled billions in AI investment are hitting a wall. Yann LeCun (Meta) followed with: "LLMs don't understand the physical world."
The AI hype machine is recalibrating. And manufacturing desperately needed that reset.
For years, the message has been: Wait.
Wait for smarter models. Wait for autonomous agents. Wait for AGI.
Meanwhile, reality looks like this:
- 2.1 million manufacturing jobs unfilled by 2030 (US Labor Statistics)
- 70% of digital transformation initiatives fail (BCG, McKinsey)
- 10,000 experienced operators retiring every single day (US Census)
We don't have time to wait.
Walker Reynolds (IIoT/ Industry 4.0 expert) said it best: *"The smartest people in your organization are on the plant floor. They already know what's wrong. Go talk to an operator."*
So here's the real question:
What if the breakthrough isn't smarter AI, but AI that finally captures what operators already know?
That technology exists today.
- Voice input that works in any language
- Image capture that reads gauges and panels
- Natural language that turns observations into structured data
Sam Altman recently said the keyboard was "designed to slow down how fast humans can input information."
For an operator wearing gloves, walking the floor, noticing something off…
Voice isn't a convenience. It's liberation.
AI plateauing means the race to "more intelligent" is slowing. But the race to "better applied" is just beginning.
Manufacturing doesn't need AI that thinks like a human. It needs AI that listens to them.
At Oppr.ai, that's exactly what we're building.
And in 2026, I think more manufacturers will realize the answer was on their floor all along.
Are you waiting for smarter AI — or applying what already exists?
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