Sandvik gives factory workers an AI copilot — and reports productivity gains of up to 30%
Sandvik built an AI assistant that gives manufacturing employees instant, natural-language access to decades of technical documentation and product knowledge.
The Business
Sandvik built an AI assistant that gives manufacturing employees instant, natural-language access to decades of technical documentation and product knowledge.
Sandvik · Europe · 41,000+ employees.
Before AI
Employees had to navigate large volumes of manuals, help files and internal knowledge to answer technical questions or resolve issues. This was slow, especially for complex or unfamiliar equipment.
What Changed
Sandvik built a 'Manufacturing Copilot' on Azure OpenAI Service and Azure AI Search, embedded directly into its CAM software brands (Cimatron, GibbsCAM, SigmaNEST). Employees can now ask questions in plain language across years of documentation.
The Result
Sandvik reports an average productivity increase of 20–30% (up to 50% on entirely new problems), and the time to onboard new salespeople roughly halved.
Why this matters
The interesting part isn't Sandvik. It's the idea.
A large manufacturer turned years of internal manuals and technical knowledge into something employees can simply ask questions.
That same problem — knowledge trapped inside documents — exists across thousands of smaller manufacturers, workshops, engineering firms and service businesses.
If it works at Sandvik, could a similar approach work for businesses in your market?
Technology Used
Used for:
Source
Results are reported by the identified source/company and have not necessarily been independently verified by AI YAI YAI.
Could this work in your market?
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