A recent survey conducted by Newark reveals that a significant majority of participants, 86% to be precise, are beginning to trust Artificial Intelligence (AI) to assist in the selection of components for their designs. Of this group, 23% expressed complete trust in AI’s ability to choose components.
While the survey results indicate a growing faith in AI’s role in component selection, there is still some apprehension regarding potential bias, whether intentional or unintentional, within AI systems. Some designers expressed that they would only allow AI to play a “limited” role in the selection process, subject to their own review and checks.
Most respondents agreed that while AI could be a beneficial tool, human involvement will always be necessary in the selection process, particularly for safety-critical systems and innovative designs.
One retired systems engineer shared his skepticism about AI replacing human judgement, saying, “AI is no substitute for good engineering calculations. I have been following AI for more than 40 years and it is more overhyped now than ever.” He went on to express concerns about the inability to control the data used to train AI models and the lack of understanding about why an AI module selects specific products.
Another participant echoed the sentiment that AI can serve as a useful assistant rather than a replacement. He said, “That comes with the caveat that I’d reserve the right to vet everything the AI selected. In this capacity, AI would be used as an enhanced search engine of sorts.”
A respondent who was eager to use AI said, “I don’t see why AI couldn’t be fully integrated into the component selection process. Hardware design is fundamentally composed of patterns. It’s just a matter of time until people discover ways to get online netlists and schematic PDFs and use them as good AI training data.” He further mentioned that AI has the potential to improve these patterns once there are better digital representations of devices and their contents.
However, even regular users of AI for component selection voiced concerns about its reliability and ability to consistently make the best choices.
Cliff Ortmeyer, global head of technical marketing and solutions Development at Newark, summarized the survey findings by saying, “Our survey results clearly show that engineers are beginning to see a path for AI’s place in terms of component selection in their designs, especially where safety or innovation are considerations.” He also added that as AI models continue to evolve, they are likely to become more instrumental in modelling designs, selecting components, and reducing design cycles and time-to-market of new products.
The survey results offer a fascinating insight into the evolving relationship between engineers and AI in the electronics industry. As AI continues to revolutionize various fields including electronics, computers, programming languages, and coding, it’s clear that its role in component selection is just the tip of the iceberg. Despite some reservations, it seems inevitable that AI will continue to play an increasingly significant role in the electronics industry in the years to come.
