Is AI trying to fix the wrong part of manufacturing?

18th March 2026

Is AI trying to fix the wrong part of manufacturing?

Industry research suggests that roughly 70% of a product's manufacturing cost is determined during the design phase. Yet most AI adoption in manufacturing focuses downstream - on quoting, feasibility, and production planning - long after key design decisions have been made. But what if we shift AI's role from downstream optimisation to upstream decision-making? Encube founder Hugo Nordell has published research on what he calls Agentic Design Engineering, looking at how AI can act as a real-time design assistant, keeping manufacturing constraints, cost drivers and geometric trade-offs visible while engineers are still making decisions. When the focus is design-for-manufacture, it's an interesting proposition.

With best regards

Mark Simms, Editor
msimms@theengineeringnetwork.co.uk

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