Technology
3D Printing is Finally Changing the Manufacturing Landscape
3D Printing is Finally Changing the Manufacturing Landscape
The right software can change industries quickly.
For fast-moving companies like Airbnb, Stripe, Uber, Facebook, or Slack, the piping – such as the internet and smartphones – is already well-established, allowing these startups to scale at unprecedented speeds.
For 3D printing and other such “hard” technologies? Things end up being a lot more complicated.
A Long Time Coming
The rise of 3D printing reached peak hype years ago – and as far back as 2014, we were illustrating how 3D printing could ultimately shape the future of business. However, since those days, the technology has arguably fallen into the dreaded “trough of disillusionment” category on the famous Gartner Hype Cycle.
The harsh reality is that it’s just really hard to move things like 3D printing forward at the same type of speed as software. For the technology to scale at a commercial level, products would need to be flawless and intuitive from the get-go (they weren’t), and all engineering, technological, and design problems would need to be solved at lightning-quick speeds. Instead, it takes huge amounts of research, investment, patience, and iterations to get to the next level.
Today’s infographic comes to us from Raconteur, and it highlights a most recent snapshot of the 3D printing industry. Importantly, it shows that the technology is still chugging along in a way that is changing how things are made – just at a less hype-worthy pace.
Building From Ground Up
3D printing has now permeated practically every industry in at least some capacity, being used in a wide range of sectors from consumer goods to pharmaceuticals.
According to a report by EY, the potential for additive manufacturing is highest in the automotive and aerospace industries. For example, it’s expected that about half (49%) of automotive companies will use 3D printing to directly manufacture car parts in order to achieve operational efficiencies. These companies believe that 3D printing will help them address challenges such as demand for increased customization, continued improvement, and lightweight components.
As a result of increased demand and more familiarity with the technology, Gartner said shipments of 3D printers increased 108% between 2015 and 2016, resulting in 456,000 units shipped globally. More importantly, by 2020 this number will be at 6.7 million units, which would represent phenomenal growth for the technology.
As of today, most companies are still using 3D printers for accelerating product development, such as prototyping (34% of applications) and for proof of concept (23%). However, as 3D printing gets more use in additional areas – such as mass customization and collaboration on products – it’s possible the ship will really begin to sail, even if it was slightly delayed in getting out of the gate.
Technology
Charted: The Jobs Most Impacted by AI
We visualized the results of an analysis by the World Economic Forum, which uncovered the jobs most impacted by AI.
Charted: The Jobs Most Impacted by AI
This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.
Large language models (LLMs) and other generative AI tools haven’t been around for very long, but they’re expected to have far-reaching impacts on the way people do their jobs. With this in mind, researchers have already begun studying the potential impacts of this transformative technology.
In this graphic, we’ve visualized the results of a World Economic Forum report, which estimated how different job departments will be exposed to AI disruption.
Data and Methodology
To identify the job departments most impacted by AI, researchers assessed over 19,000 occupational tasks (e.g. reading documents) to determine if they relied on language. If a task was deemed language-based, it was then determined how much human involvement was needed to complete that task.
With this analysis, researchers were then able to estimate how AI would impact different occupational groups.
Department | Large impact (%) | Small impact (%) | No impact (%) |
---|---|---|---|
IT | 73 | 26 | 1 |
Finance | 70 | 21 | 9 |
Customer Sales | 67 | 16 | 17 |
Operations | 65 | 18 | 17 |
HR | 57 | 41 | 2 |
Marketing | 56 | 41 | 3 |
Legal | 46 | 50 | 4 |
Supply Chain | 43 | 18 | 39 |
In our graphic, large impact refers to tasks that will be fully automated or significantly altered by AI technologies. Small impact refers to tasks that have a lesser potential for disruption.
Where AI will make the biggest impact
Jobs in infogramtion technology (IT) and finance have the highest share of tasks expected to be largely impacted by AI.
Within IT, tasks that are expected to be automated include software quality assurance and customer support. On the finance side, researchers believe that AI could be significantly useful for bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing.
Still interested in AI? Check out this graphic which ranked the most commonly used AI tools in 2023.
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