The world of AI and Agents seemingly focuses on OpenAI and Anthropic thanks to their leaders’ bold dystopian statements. There are others—even ones who have application in manufacturing.
Google sent me a rare piece of news from it’s recent annual user conference, Google Cloud Next ’26, held in Las Vegas. Not to be outdone, Google has Gemini. During the conference GE Appliances announced it is using Gemini Enterprise to deploy over 800 AI agents across its manufacturing, logistics, and supply chain operations, putting AI into the hands of the people closest to the work.
OK, I just attended a conference where two active agents were demonstrated with several more on the way. Somehow 800 seems like more than can be managed. But, that’s what they say.
I may not have heard much about GE Appliances since my company built a helium mass spectroscopy testing machine for their “factory of the future” in 1985.
I keep telling people that I don’t want theory. Actual applications, no matter how small, are more interesting to me. Here are three examples provided by Google and GE Appliances:
- Manufacturing: GE Appliances embedded Gemini Enterprise into its Brilliant Factory manufacturing data platform, which has enabled agents to analyze shift data in minutes rather than hours, allow employees to talk to production data to diagnose issues quickly, and provide live view of line yields and equipment health to reduce downtime.
- Logistics: GE Appliances used Gemini Enterprise to build its Quality Insights AI tool for AI-assisted analysis which has yielded measurable results, uncovering millions of dollars in improvement opportunities across customer logistics and internal operations.
- Supply Chain: GE Appliances introduced a Supplier Collaboration Agent to manage communication with more than 600 suppliers. This agent automated order status inquiries, leading to a 25% reduction in backorders and allowing the team to focus on high-value strategic growth.
