Marc Bitzer reveals why Whirlpool is a magnet for AI tech experts. 



Whirlpool CEO: AI is making kitchens and appliances smarter 

Leadership

mark. It's amazing how much artificial intelligence ai is transforming business. And you obviously know because role pool started using Ai technology 10, 15 years ago. What innovation has a I brought to pull one of the first month was a lot about sensing technologies and products. Um Now it sounds very basic but you know take a washing machine, it's critical to understand what kind of load do you have in the washing machine that determines water usage, energy usage and detergent usage. Um So the combination of sensor sensor technology, but even how we can measure the talk of mortar that together gives you the right data points to understand in the machine, what is really in what's the weight of the machine below? Even the consumer has never entered the data once, you know that you can adjust the algorithms in the machine to optimize the program according to the actual load. That was one of the first ones kind of 10, 15 years ago. So what has all this Ai technology meant for consumers? You know, we hear so much about smart kitchens, smart appliances, you know, from a consumer perspective, it means that not every cycle takes two hours, you know, depending on the load, it could be done after 90 minutes, 17 minutes. That's what AI brings because it's optimized cycle, but then it moved into other areas like for example, often you know where the ovens now sensing technology visual recognition. Um we can recognize it in the oven. Is the meat done or not. Um And that's a I mean obviously that's a big issue um is a crispy etcetera. So the combination of sensing and visual technology coupled with image recognition which has advanced so much the last five or 10 years. Um you can optimize without it consumer ever having to worry about it. You also using your Ai in your manufacturing operations. Tell us how ai makes your manufacturing more efficient and also smarter. I think the biggest benefit we really get from quality assurance and you know, trying to get the right quality and factoring before the product is a critical element has massive cost certification. So I think that's where we saw the biggest advancement on quality, but now also managing process efficiencies um and particularly what we call assembly yield in the face of component shortages. That's where we saw some very big advantages and benefits. A lot of people associate all of the advances of Ai technology with losing jobs. What do you say to that? What it will require will require a different skill set in the factories because you know, all these machines, I mean they require serious upgrading of skills which we have a factory. So I would say the nature of the job changes. Um I don't think the fundamental workload actually, I would even argue some of the Ai will allow and make the so called restoring a lot more efficient. What do you see in the future? I mean how will Ai bring even more innovations down the road. I mean what are you imagining what's in the work? First of all I would say there's no one A I also like there's no one digital, you have multiple aspects of the company where it plays a critical role. I think we will see a more a lot more Ai and consumer facing side. You know, when we when we directly approach consumer so when we can approach susie and know what you bought last week and how we could help you going forward. So I think AI and data analytics together will help in particular consumer facing side. So we make the message is more relevant to the consumer. How is it attracting data scientists and AI experts to a company like world pool. Most people don't think of it as a big technology company. I think ultimately what allows us to attract people are the values for long term history of the company. Um and and frankly, you know, just what people, what we do is a product of a consumer home. You know, even if your data scientists, you like still products which your mom has at home because it's more tangible, it's more relevant. Um it's real it's not some B2B business. Um it's really matter. I think what allows us to attract people