Development and application of a human-centric co-creation design method for AI-enabled systems in manufacturing

The integration of AI-enabled solutions in manufacturing is creating unprecedented challenges to design human-centric, safe and trusted systems. As opposed to designing a system with as little human input as possible, humans will still be expected to continue playing a vital role in the design, operation, and control of AI supported manufacturing systems. Yet, till now, there has been little discussion of what the requirements of human-centric designs might be in an AI environment. To facilitate the consideration of human skills, capabilities and human factors, a human-centric design method was developed and tested through co-creation workshops addressing industrial use cases of AI deployment in manufacturing. The method proved successful in encouraging relevant stakeholders to identify human factors-related issues linked to the different collaboration scenarios of humans with AI systems early in the design process.