4IR

AI ethics in the workplace is everyone’s responsibility. It requires accountability from companies as a whole and conscious action from individuals—whether developers or users, managers or employees. Key issues revolve around ethical AI skills and questions of governance and employee representation. How will the world of work change, from radiology and speech therapy to assembly and quality control?

Artificial intelligence, collaborative robotics, and virtual worlds, such as the metaverse, are fueling visions for new forms of industrial value creation. However, innovation alone is not enough—given that these technologies only develop their full potential through intelligent business models. How can companies efficiently integrate AI-supported automation, cobots and digital twins into their processes?

Industry 4.0 and Smart Factory have become a real source of hope and are the technological answer to some of the biggest challenges of our time: sustainable production, global interconnections, intelligent exchange of knowledge. This special issue discusses research questions relating to process improvement, artificial intelligence and factory software.