Welcome to the Era of Cognitive Maintenance

Maintenance Maestros Podcast – Season 1: Bonus Ep Hosted by: Melissa Teo, Senior Marketing Manager, Groundup.ai

The Elephant in the Room

For most people, predictive maintenance (PdM) still seems like the Holy Grail. The end-all, be-all solution. But Leon’s take is different: PdM is merely the beginning of a new era.

CEO & Founder of Groundup.ai says, "In previous eras, everyone thought their current tech was the best. Like the latest iPhone? But who knows? 30 years from now, our current phones will be in a museum. Similarly, PdM is reaching a point where those who view it as the ultimate solution need to re-think.

There is always a next phase. We call this next phase Cognitive Maintenance. Going forward, powered by AI, we believe this is the only way for the industry."

What's Great on Paper, but Not Moving the Needle?

If PdM is plateauing, what are companies spending on? Typically, they're burning probably 2 to 3% of their entire Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) budget on predictive maintenance initiatives, Leon says. Considering that about 11% of a company’s revenue often goes into MRO budgets, this investment should be higher if you truly want to reduce losses. The industrial sector needs to adopt these trends much faster than it currently is.

We often see PdM looking great on PowerPoint and dashboards. It tells you when a machine is likely to break down, and that's usually where it stops. In today's competitive market, that level of insight is simply not sufficient. To be truly helpful, we must go far beyond just a breakdown prediction.

The Problem of Stagnation

Why are many vendors still selling PDM as the end-game? The speed of AI innovation is a factor. Three years ago, ChatGPT didn't exist, and the pace of the market is understandably difficult for a busy manufacturing manager to keep up with.

It’s often not malicious; many simply don't know what is out there because the market is moving so rapidly.

This puts the onus on technology providers to spend more on education rather than just selling their current products. The more they educate, the better it is for everyone. Without this shift, PdM will likely only be found in history books within five years.

Introducing Maintenance with a Brain 🧠

If PdM is like plotting graphs to justify a breakdown prediction, then Cognitive Maintenance is putting an AI brain into the PdM system.

The benefit of this AI layer goes beyond simple prediction:

1. It tells you when the machine will spoil.
2. It tells you how the machine spoils (the root cause analysis).
3. It tells you why it's failing.
4. Most importantly, it tells you how to go and solve it at the end.

Cognitive Maintenance acts like a virtual machine expert at your fingertips, allowing engineers to slightly "off their brain" from time-consuming troubleshooting and focus on the next step: the fix.

Why Digitalization Fails

Reports from consulting firms like McKinsey suggest that about 70% of digitalization projects fail. In the industrial sector, based on our experience, we believe that figure is even worse—probably closer to 80-90%!

Why this high failure rate?

• Lack of Solutions: The sheer volume of AI solutions entering the market is lesser for industrial verticals. It's a hard, "un-sexy" problem, and many developers prefer more generic applications.
• Risk Aversion: These are high-stakes industries, often investing billions in capital expenditure (CAPEX). If you’ve already invested billions, the tendency is to minimize risk, leading you to buy the safest, most traditional option rather than the most aggressive, innovative one.

The Winners of Cognitive Maintenance

When you implement Cognitive Maintenance, the returns are significant and impact multiple stakeholders:

• The Corporation: They get higher ROI and, more importantly, can double the lifespan of assets. If a company typically overhauls airplanes every 5 years, pushing that to 10 years means recycling billions in CAPEX—a massive, long-term ROI that is often missed.
• The Employees: AI helps the crew do a better job and makes their roles more interesting. It can reduce friction by providing clarity and a better tool to juggle production and maintenance schedules.

Some leaders claim their maintenance crews won't adopt new tech, but we’ve found that about 80% of people want to do something new. The problem often lies in lazy leadership that hasn't fully supported the push for change.

Empowering your organization with AI helps employees learn and makes their job more engaging, which helps with retention.

The Global AI Race and the Mindset Shift

In the race for AI dominance, winning requires focus. Developed countries will likely win the Infrastructure Layer (LLMs, servers) due to the billions in CAPEX required. For developing regions, the focus should be on winning deep Vertical Applications (niche solutions) or strong Horizontal Applications (AI for broad sectors like agriculture).

In the Cognitive Maintenance space, our region (Southeast Asia) is well-positioned to thrive. We are used to a super-regulated environment, which creates a high barrier to entry, and we have the physical assets ("atoms") that require a deep understanding beyond surface-level data.

The One Mindset Shift You Need

If you want to get ahead in maintenance, the biggest tip is to understand where the industry is going. Don't just look at your company's perspective; zoom out. Look at the whole landscape, the region, and the world. If you see others successfully using new technology, the only logical thing to do is to sit down, understand it, and learn how it can help your work. That mindset shift is what will make your career progress much better.

A Final Thought on AI and Trust: Should AI be trusted to make life and death decisions? No. You must trust humans to train the AI to make the right decision. Technology exists to serve humans, and in life and death situations, we must trust the humans who understand values beyond efficiency.

👉 Ready for the Industry 5.0? Discover how Groundup.ai’s Cognitive Maintenance solution helps plants, fleets, and facilities think, learn, and evolve.

In Summary:

• Predictive Maintenance Is Plateauing – PdM is not the finish line; it’s an outdated approach that needs to evolve.
• Enter Cognitive Maintenance – Maintenance with an AI brain 🧠 that answers what, how, why, and how to solve it.
• The ROI Reality– CGM can recycle billions in CAPEX by doubling the lifespan of assets.
• Why Digitalization Fails (and How to Fix It) – Failure is high due to risk aversion and a lack of specific industrial solutions; the fix is a culture that supports change.
• The Mindset Shift –Winners are learners who adapt fast by understanding the global industry direction.

▶️ Watch the series here: https://groundup.ai/podcast/