Three years ago to the month, I wrote for this column a reflection on the explosive growth of artificial intelligence (AI), marvelling that the topic had rapidly gone from “niche subject matter to compelling consideration….from science fiction staple to….a regular, serious business conversation”. 

That time period feels much shorter given the extent to which the adoption rate has accelerated, bringing with it a whole new set of terminology, knowledge and application which results in the acquisition of skillsets that differentiate business performance.

If you aren’t sure of the difference between agentic and reactive AI or have heard of Claude Code but are not really sure what it is, you’re definitely not alone. But if no one in your organisation does either, you may be missing the benefits that specific knowledge can bring, and it will only get more sophisticated from here.   

AI has been on our minds recently at Scottish Engineering for two reasons.  The first because thanks to our members, we now have survey data that gives us insight into the levels of uptake and application of AI tools in Scotland’s engineering and manufacturing industries. I’ll come back to that consideration.

Everyone laughed at philosophy degrees. Then AI arrived

The second is that this week, Scottish Engineering launches its........

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