Jordan Taylor, 29, quit his job at Nvidia to build AI-driven industrial design tools with his childhood friend Kaelan Richards, also 29. Today, their company, Vizcom, has raised $25 million from investors that include Index Ventures, and signed big-name customers that include Ford and New Balance. “It doesn’t really feel like I’m building a company,” Taylor said. “I’m just trying to solve the problem for myself, and other people just happen to also have that problem.”

Artificial intelligence is a key theme of this year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 list in Manufacturing & Industry, which highlights young entrepreneurs across fields like manufacturing, robotics, aerospace, agriculture and climate tech. Many are using AI, but few are using it in the same way.

Tim Tadder for Forbes

Take Dylan Conway and Jim Zhu, both 27, for example. They’re using AI to shake up manufacturing with their San Jose-based startup Squint. The company’s software helps industrial giants, including Michelin, Siemens and Nestlé, train new machine operators, manage equipment and automate data entry with a goal of increasing efficiency.

Then there’s Samuel Lam, 29, whose company PermitFlow aims to make construction building faster and less expensive by applying AI to........

© Forbes