Engineers Embrace AI for Component Selection, Finds element14 Research
The results of a recent survey carried out by element14 show that 86% of respondents trust AI to play at least some role in their component selection for their designs, and more than a quarter of those (23%) said they would “completely” trust AI to select components.
Overall, the results of the survey indicated that while engineers believe AI will have an increasing role in assisting with component selection in the future, there is lingering concern about intentional or unintentional bias in AI systems, with some designers saying that they would trust AI to play a “limited” role in selection that remained subject to reviews and checks by themselves. Although most respondents welcomed complementary AI, they also felt that human beings will always be required as part of the selection process, especially for safety-critical systems and innovative designs.
One retired systems engineer said, “AI is no substitute for good engineering calculations. I have been following AI for more than 40 years and it is more overhyped now than ever.” When others pointed out that humans make errors, this engineer said, “I am more willing to tolerate human error than rely on an AI solution where I cannot control the data used to train the AI model.” This reflects a concern that engineers will not be able to fully understand why an AI module selects particular products.
Another respondent highlighted a common view that AI could be more useful as an assistant rather than a replacement. He said, “That comes with the caveat that I’d reserve the right to vet everything the AI selected. In this capacity, AI would be used as an enhanced search engine of sorts.”
Cliff Ortmeyer, Global Head of Technical Marketing and Solutions Development at element14, said, “Our survey results clearly show that engineers are beginning to see a path for AI’s place in terms of component selection in their designs, especially where safety or innovation are considerations. As AI models get more sophisticated, it seems clear that they will become more useful for modelling designs, selecting components, shortening design cycles and reducing time to market of new products.”
