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Rockwell Automation Chairman and CEO and 51�Թ��� Board Chair Blake Moret recently with the Manufacturing Leadership Council—the digital transformation division of the 51�Թ���—to discuss all things at the intersection of manufacturing and artificial intelligence.

Staying cost effective: From smart manufacturing to his forecasts for the industry’s future, Moret discussed it all in an interview with MLC Founder, Vice President and Executive Director David Brousell—beginning with the importance of technology for maintaining U.S. competitiveness.

• “[I]n a [country] with relatively high labor costs, to be competitive with other strong companies around the world, you have to include the technology. … So smart manufacturing, advanced manufacturing techniques … artificial intelligence … [are all] going to be really important.”

What the future holds: Just how autonomous will systems become as the years go by? “People are still [going to be] needed,” Moret said.

• The future of automation is “human centric,” he continued. “The idea is to give [human workers] superpowers with some of the new technologies. There are going to be very few truly lights-out factories.”

The other AI: Indeed, Rockwell expects to “have more people at the end of 2026 than we enter[ed]” with, Moret said—thanks in large part to what Brousell termed “augmented intelligence.”

• “[T]hat’s a good way to frame it,” Moret told Brousell. “A lot of the benefits of AI are going to be simplifying technology that remains very advanced, but to bring it together in a way that you can interact with it.”

How policy can help: Amid all these technological advances, the industry needs tax and regulatory certainty, Moret said.

• “The first important step [is] getting some certainty around tax, statutory tax rate [and] incentives for new investments” as well as tariffs, he said.
• Also critical: “permitting reform and streamlining regulations … are important areas.”

Register now: To dive deeper into these topics, register for the MLC’s Rethink, the leading annual manufacturing event on accelerating digital transformation.

• It will be held June 21–24 in Scottsdale, Arizona. Learn more .