UK manufacturers are invited to take part in trial of AI tool
23 April 2025 
UK manufacturers are being invited take part in a trial of generative AI tool that will give them instant access to information usually buried in technical manuals, engineer reports, audit logs, and more. The trial is being run jointly by the Norfolk-based AI developer Instro AI Solutions and the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) Cymru, and is being 45% funded by the government-backed Growth Through Innovation scheme.
Site engineers working for successful applicants will receive tailored AI chat support based on their organisation’s data and materials. The trials will assess the business benefits of AI in areas such as machine troubleshooting and customer service.
Instro claims that one early user of its Instro AI Assistant tool – the sheet metal machinery manufacturer, Amada – has saved more than 950 field engineering hours to date by using the tool.
Many manufacturers face the challenge of accessing accurate information quickly, whether for machine troubleshooting, SOPs (standard operating procedures), safety checks, or customer service. Their employees spend valuable time searching through PDFs, spreadsheets, or relying on senior staff to interpret documents.
Instro’s generative AI Assistant is designed to transform how knowledge is accessed and applied across an organisation. It is trained on technical documents, manuals, customer records and compliance information, and is said to provide instant, accurate and context-aware responses to everyday questions – thus boosting productivity, reducing errors, improving decision-making and enhancing customer service.
Unlike traditional search or chatbot tools, the AI Assistant can interpret complex queries, summarise detailed documents, signpost sources of key information, and tailor natural language responses to the needs of an organisation.
In the trial, four prototype AI Assistants will be co-developed and tested with the successful applicants. Each participating business will work with Instro AI Solutions and AMRC Cymru to configure the AI Assistant using their own content and processes.
Over a four-week deployment, teams from engineering, sales, compliance, and customer support, will test the tool in their daily operations. At the end of the trial, each business will receive a report covering:
- the time saved across technical, sales and support functions;
- insights such as audit preparation, customer response times, and onboarding;
- user feedback on factors including AI accuracy and estimated ROIs; and
- strategic summaries to inform further adoption and investment.
“Together, we are giving manufacturers a way to unlock value hidden in their documentation and processes,” says Phil Sanders, Instro’s co-founder and commercial director. “With the AMRC as our partner, we’re showing how generative AI can deliver real outcomes – faster decisions, better training, and more consistent customer experiences.”
“This collaboration puts manufacturers at the heart of the innovation process,” adds Pritesh Patel, a senior manufacturing research engineer specialising in AI at AMRC Cymru. “These trials will help businesses test and shape a technology solution that’s practical, measurable, and tailored to their sector.”
Amada’s pilot deployment of the AI tool came about because its engineers needed faster, easier access to critical knowledge, with junior personnel, in particular, struggling to find the right information buried in more than 10,000 pages of manuals and more than 6,000 site visit reports. They often had to call senior colleagues, diverting them from important work.
Amada deployed a custom version of the Instro AI Assistant, trained on its manuals and site reports, as well as knowledge from its field engineers. After a four-week pilot trial on one machine in the UK, Amada rolled out the tool to 60 engineers working on seven types of machine across three countries in Europe.
The company’s employees now get instant, contextual answers to questions. They are saving 10–120 minutes per query, and have saved an estimated total of 950 hours to date. Engineers in France and Spain can access English documents in their own languages. This initial deployment is now being followed by trials in Japan.
To apply to take part in the Instro/AMRC trial, manufacturers can fill in an online form.
