How Is AI Improving Quality Control?

Slowly but steadily, artificial intelligence is covering everything. It would not be wrong to assume that there may not remain a single aspect of humanity that AI would not touch in the near future. At the moment, robots have already replaced humans in most menial jobs. Therefore, it is only a matter of time before artificial intelligence seeps into those stages of production which are still under human supervision. One of the most common sectors under this category is quality control.    

Role of AI

If we go back a few hundred years in history, we will not find anything akin to quality control. Probably, that is because products were always under human eyes in the era of handmade goods. With the onslaught of mass production, the biggest drawback of modern-day products is their lack of dependability. This is because most of the production process is beyond human control and supervision. Automatic conveyor belts carry the products throughout the entire process of production and manufacture. Such a setup was created to keep the products out of human contact to maintain hygiene. However, leaving the whole production process in the hands of machines is not very prudent. Therefore, human eyes are positioned at certain stages of production to keep the quality in check.    

However, AI is slowly taking over this role as well. Human beings bring in an element of dependability but have a specific limit. On the other hand, modern-day machines are more efficient and bring in an added sense of security in the form of AI, which takes care of nearly all the quality concerns. With smart cameras and AI-enabled software, quality control is being taken care of much more efficiently, transparently, and briskly.    

So how does AI improve the process of quality control? Let's say your software has been programmed to look for irregularities in the finished product. Nine out of ten times, the software successfully identifies a faulty product. However, the tenth time poses a challenge for the engineers. It may come across a product that it cannot decide whether to keep or reject. It is precisely at this juncture that AI steps in. It does not solely depend on the existing software and adapts on its own to learn about the situation to solve the present crisis. It also accounts for any problems that may arise in the future.    

AI-Powered Sectors    

There are several sectors that rely on AI for quality control. Let us have a look at some of them.   

Software Industry   

If we look at different sectors where AI is helping in quality control, the first name that would pop up is the software industry. Before being introduced on the market, software must go through rigorous testing. The data collected during all these tests must be kept in pristine order to make further optimizations in the software. AI analyses this data and does it far more quickly, resulting in a much less production period.    

Wine Industry   

Wine production is another area where AI is leaving a lasting impression. Winemaking requires a lot of components to function seamlessly in order to produce the desired taste. Right from the necessary soil conditions to the amount of water needed for irrigation. AI can also predict any future changes in weather patterns, which is a crucial aspect of this industry. If all goes well, then wine production may become a fully automated industry in the future.    

Automobile Industry   

Another sector where AI-enabled quality control is making a huge impact is the automobile industry. Even though automobiles have gone through significant changes over the last half-century – self-driving cars being the latest development – they have been possible only due to the progress made in AI.   

AI is bringing down the overall time spent on quality control in the Automobile industry. If we consider large multinationals and their inventories, human supervision will take a long time before locating the problem. AI accelerates this process to a few hours, which is beneficial for the companies as they get to repurpose their employees.    

Overall, we can say that AI has contributed to several industries around us. AI can be seen in charge of everything from essential food products we consume to the advanced medicines that cure our illnesses. One might argue that with AI's advanced levels of automation, we may be looking at a dangerous and unpredictable future. But that is true regarding every new piece of technology. There is an amount of risk involved when everything becomes automated, but AI is most certainly contributing to our betterment in the most imaginable ways.