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Get Uncomfortable or Get Run Over: How AI Is Reshaping the EMS Industry
December 17, 2025 | Mark Wolfe, Global Electronics AssociationEstimated reading time: 1 minute
Imagine crossing a highway blindfolded. You might make it across a few times, but if traffic builds, the odds catch up. In the EMS industry, ignoring AI feels much the same way. You can keep doing what worked in the past, but as the pace of change accelerates, standing still becomes the riskiest move of all.
After hosting my first EMS leadership roundtable earlier this year, I found myself repeating a line that has since become a theme: “You need to get uncomfortable and start to understand this stuff, or it will run you over.”
I wasn’t speaking in hypotheticals. AI is already at work, quietly and often behind the scenes, yet in very real and tangible ways. It’s beginning to transform the EMS industry.
The Fog of Innovation
Across multiple roundtables, the conversations have been both fascinating and revealing. Attendees consistently fall into two camps: those who don’t yet know enough to speak confidently about AI, and those who do, but view their knowledge as a competitive advantage, sharing only at an anecdotal level.
The examples come quickly: smarter planning tools, AI-assisted supply chain forecasting, automated document control, real-time language translation for global teams, predictive maintenance, and adaptive work instructions. But when you dig deeper, the details blur. Which of these are still concepts and which are being piloted? Which are live and delivering measurable results?
To continue reading this article, which originally appeared in the December 2025 edition of SMT007 Magazine, click here.
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