Sony’s AITRIOS Platform Offers a Best Practice Guide for Scaling Innovation Across Factories

Sony created an edge AI sensing platform, AITRIOS, as part of the company’s digital transformation strategy. One use that AITRIOS supports is visual inspection on the production line with Artificial Intelligence (AI) models via a no-code interface to aid in analyzing partially finished products and detect any imperfections. The analysis takes place at the edge, i.e., on the device collecting the images itself, rather than transmitting the images to the cloud for analysis, which saves network costs.

AITRIOS has been implemented at Sony’s manufacturing plants that produce semiconductors and electronics. Not only is it a good example of utilizing AI on the factory floor, but also how to harness innovation across multiple sites.

In addition to visual inspection for quality control, AITRIOS is being utilized to support predictive maintenance programs, equipment performance, and compliance monitoring such as confirming that staff are complying with safety protocols and that the correct assembly sequences are being adhered to.

AITRIOS can be trained with as few as 50 images and be deployed by manufacturing engineers and machine operators, rather than software teams. The platform is now integral to optimizing production workflows and reducing scrap rates; already, Sony’s plants report that utilizing AITRIOS can be linked to defect rates falling by 30%. In Sony’s experience, the edge deployment and no-code interface enable the company to rapidly deploy AITRIOS across its facilities. Furthermore, AITRIOS connects with the factory’s Manufacturing Execution Systems (MESs) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems so that teams have the images and data to work on rectifying the issues internally and with suppliers.

Digital transformation at Sony’s manufacturing operations is led by Senior General Manager, Yoshinori Matsumoto. The digital transformation strategy not only prioritizes reducing operational costs and equipment downtime, and increasing quality levels, but also focuses on enabling staff members to make quicker decisions via connected assets and centralized reporting tools, as well as optimize production utilizing digital twins.

Sony has taken a phased approach with regard to both the use cases that AITRIOS can support and the facilities where it is deployed. The platform was created in 2023 and introduced at select facilities. Visual inspection was added in 2024, followed by machine monitoring later in the year. In 2025, the company implemented predictive maintenance and worker safety use cases.

The platform’s design includes a no-code interface, which lowers the barriers to adoption by staff on the factory floor and many have tailored the platform to their individual needs. This has resulted in many staff increasing their digital skills and having more time available to consider ways to optimize production, rather than manage day-to-day tasks.

There are, however, guardrails in place. The corporate digital transformation and quality management teams have created performance criteria and thresholds that any AI models created via AITRIOS in terms of accuracy and reliability must achieve. But more importantly, individuals and teams share the AI models they create via centralized dashboards. Members of the centralized team identify models that have potential for use at other sites and create pre-configured templates to support other teams. The blend of central and local innovation means that unforeseen use cases and models can be created locally, but also best practices can be shared and the Return on Investment (ROI) that can be attributed to AITRIOS, and AI investments more broadly, can be ascertained.

Sony is not keeping AITRIOS to itself. Sony Semiconductor Solutions showcased AITRIOS at Hannover Messe 2025 and how the platform can be incorporated into other vendor applications, including smart manufacturing solutions from FPT Software, data analytics from Software AG’s IoT platform Cumulocity, industrial Human-Machine Interface (HMI) solutions from Schneider Electric and AVEVA’s digital twin solutions. In time, AITRIOS may not just be a quality management tool for Sony, but a revenue generator, too.