What workforce problem has populated every industrial trade press issue for the past 10-15 years? Baby Boomers are retiring taking decades of knowledge with them. How can the new workforce of engineers and technicians be provided the skillset quickly?

Actually, new people have come into the industry continually for years. Recall the conferences you’ve attended (except during the pandemic) over the past several years. The demographic has been trending younger and diverse.

However, the search for better ways to train new workers is, and will be, never ending. We’ve traveled the simulation path. Better virtual reality technology may improve that experience.

Another solution comes from a new company formed in Detroit with former Siemens executives. (The press release says, “with a vision to use AI to accelerate skills training for shop-floor and other highly technical skilled trades workers.”) DeepHow utilize generative AI to enable teams to capture their know-how using a smartphone, turning expertise into step-by-step how-to videos that can be translated into multiple languages in a matter of minutes, to create a unique and extremely valuable library of organizational knowledge that can be effectively transferred to every worker.

This looks like one of many cool uses of technology that may not translate as well into practical everyday use as might be desired. But…it may, if it is easy to use, find widespread usage among industrial engineers.

The recent news concerns funding of the startup. DeepHow has closed $14M in Series A funding. Owl Ventures, a specialist in education technology investing, led the round, with participation from another new investor: LG Technology Ventures. Existing investors Sierra Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, Osage Venture Partners, and Foothill Ventures also participated in this round.

DeepHow plans to invest in go-to-market initiatives to accelerate its business growth, and to ramp up its investments in product, engineering, and generative AI innovation. In response to customer demand, DeepHow has already fast-tracked development of powerful product enhancements that leverage the power of generative AI to accelerate SOP video creation, multimodal workflow generation, AI chat assistance, and strategic knowledge mapping.

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