AI tool helps manufacturers to scale machine vision tasks
1 June 2026 
The machine vision specialist Cognex has announced the availability of a collaborative AI tool designed to simplify and scale AI-powered inspection in manufacturing. Since its beta launch in June 2025, more than 100 companies worldwide have been using the OneVision tool to accelerate their AI-powered vision development and deployment, with many moving from single-line applications to multi-site rollouts in days instead of months.
According to Cognex, this reflects a broader shift as manufacturers move from isolated AI pilots to connected, enterprise-wide inspection strategies.
OneVision is designed to address the challenge of how to deploy advanced vision applications at enterprise scale without adding complexity or slowing production. It uses a cloud-to-edge architecture, where AI models are trained, managed, and governed in the cloud, while inspection runs at the edge on Cognex vision systems for reliable real-time execution.
Users can manage the entire AI lifecycle centrally – from collecting and labelling production images, to refining models – and deploy updates across global fleets of devices. OneVision is designed to work with Cognex’s latest vision systems, including its In-Sight 3900 and 6900 products.
By centralising model development and management, the tool will help manufacturers to:
- standardise inspection processes across sites;
- reduce duplication of work across teams;
- cut scaling costs by up to 50%; and.
- maintain version control and consistency across deployments.
“AI vision has long delivered value, but scaling it across operations has remained a barrier,” explains Cognex president and CEO, Matt Moschner. “Manufacturers encounter recurring challenges – from fragmented workflows to models that don’t adapt across environments. OneVision addresses this by unifying the simplicity of the edge with the scalability of the cloud, helping organisations to move from isolated pilots to consistent, enterprise-wide deployment.”
“While OneVision leverages the cloud for development and management, runtime inspection remains fully edge-based,” adds Cognex’s vice-president of vision engineering, Reto Wyss. “Once a model is deployed, no connectivity to the cloud is required. Production images stay local and latency is not an issue.”
One of the companies that took part in the OneVision pilot trials was Schneider Electric which used it to help inspect contactors. According to Christophe Ernis, smart operations manager in the company’s product power division, the tool “allowed us to develop and validate AI inspection standards centrally and then deploy those same models across our worldwide operations. That approach helped us to double yield, dramatically reduce false rejects, and reduce our dependence on specialised vision expertise. Most importantly, it gives us a repeatable way to scale best practices reliably across our factories.”
Another pilot user was the global hygiene and health business, Essity. “With our previous approach, developing a reliable sealing inspection application took more than a year of iteration and tuning, and quality issues could lead to full batch returns and significant material waste,” recalls Essity’s operational technology and digitalisation manager, Amin Tajeddine. “Using OneVision, we were able to build and demonstrate a viable solution in less than a day. OneVision’s simplicity and ease of use significantly reduced development effort and gives us confidence in how quickly AI vision applications can be scaled across our operations.”
And 3M has been using the tool to label real production images, build models, and deploy them to cameras with less effort, according to the company’s senior manufacturing technology engineer, Scott Daniels.
Cognex expects momentum for OneVision to accelerate as manufacturers demand scalable AI vision to drive operational efficiency across their global production networks.
