A quick look at the recent advances, current state of utilization and expected future usage of artificial intelligence (AI) in the global textile manufacturing industry

Abstract

A significant part of the current textile manufacturing industry around the world is managed and governed by individuals who are not sufficiently trained in information technology. While future textile engineers and technologists may come out sufficiently equipped to understand IT and its implications to the textile manufacturing industry, those running the industry today can benefit through simple elaboration of potentially useful IT tools and the many benefits they offer to the textile industry. This is especially true in the case of technologies that surfaced within the last two decades and are already making a sizable impact on products, production processes and the bottom lines of manufacturing industries. Artificial intelligence (AI) and related technologies fall under the category of rapidly emerging technologies that carry the potential to significantly re-shape the global manufacturing and service industries. This paper makes an attempt to describe these technologies and their potential benefits in such a way that textile industry leaders who are not IT experts can understand them to the extent of driving themselves to enthusiastically adopt them.