Which AI Tools Matter in Manufacturing

What happens when artificial intelligence meets work that can’t be fully documented, standardized, or abstracted?

In this episode of The Future of Less Work, host Nirit Cohen sits down with Shin Nakamura, President of ONE to ONE Holdings, to explore the limits of AI through the lens of manufacturing. Drawing on his experience leading factories across Japan and Vietnam, Shin offers a grounded view of why much of today’s work still depends on human judgment, cultural context, and knowledge that lives in people rather than systems.

The conversation moves beyond the familiar blue-collar versus white-collar debate to examine a deeper divide: work that can be reduced to tasks versus work that requires adaptation, situational awareness, and tacit expertise. Together, Nirit and Shin unpack why low-volume, high-variation environments resist automation, how language and culture quietly shape whether AI succeeds or fails, and why so much critical knowledge has never been written down in the first place.

They also reflect on what Gen Z’s career choices reveal about this shift, why career security is being redefined around capability rather than job titles, and how AI risks widening gaps by making some forms of work visible while leaving others invisible.

If you’re trying to understand where AI delivers real value, where it falls short, and what kinds of work are likely to endure in an automated world, this conversation offers a rare, on-the-ground perspective from the factory floor.

https://youtu.be/WupIMAo_G7g

Guest Information:

Shinichiro (SHIN) Nakamura, President of one to ONE Holdings:

Shin is a manufacturing and global thought leader in the secondary steel processing industry. He is the President of ONE to ONE Holdings, which operates steel tube-making factories in Japan and Vietnam and provides inline galvanizing technology to tubing companies worldwide. His original family business, Daiwa Steel Tube Industries, is one of the largest producers of inline-galvanized steel tubes in East Asia.

From leading cross-border operations to overseeing factory-level development, Shin works directly within the type of blue-collar workforce that younger professionals are increasingly gravitating to. This gives him a close view of how job preferences are shifting, why some young workers are choosing skilled manufacturing roles over traditional office careers, and what industries like his are doing to attract and retain new talent.

Shin is a past Regional Chair of the YPO North Asia region and currently serves on the Board of Governors at the Asia School of Business. He previously worked as a consultant at Bain & Company and received his MBA from MIT Sloan, specializing in New Product & Venture Development.

Chapters:
00:00 — Why Gen Z Is Choosing Manufacturing Over Office Jobs
01:31 — Why Young Workers See the Future of Work Differently
03:08 — How Income Inequality Is Reshaping Global Career Choices
04:59 — How Automation and Robotics Are Changing Factory Jobs
06:00 — Why Some Manufacturing Jobs Cannot Be Fully Automated
07:33 — What Young Workers Expect From Modern Factory Jobs
09:44 — Are White-Collar Job Losses Pushing Talent Into Manufacturing?
10:36 — How Manufacturing Must Change to Attract Skilled Talent
12:40 — How AI Adoption in Manufacturing Depends on Economics
13:58 — Does AI Work Equally Well Across Languages and Cultures?
15:35 — Why AI Struggles With Tacit and Cultural Knowledge
17:26 — Why Japanese Manufacturing Knowledge Is Hard to Digitize
19:17 — Where AI Stops Working in Craft-Based Industries
20:52 — Why Shorter Careers Threaten Knowledge Transfer
21:55 — How Manufacturers Make Blue-Collar Jobs More Attractive
22:56 — The Most Important Question About the Future of Work