When knowledge walks out the door

For Louis Morias, one of the biggest opportunities for artificial intelligence in maintenance has little to do with replacing people. It is about retaining what people know.

During his research into generative AI in industrial maintenance, Morias repeatedly encountered the same concern: experienced operators and technicians may have accumulated decades of knowledge about machines, failures and solutions, yet much of it has never been formally documented.

“You have people who have been in the same company for 20 or 30 years. They know everything. They don’t need documentation because they simply know how things work,” Morias explains.

The problem becomes particularly visible when rare failures occur. An experienced technician may have encountered the same problem two or three times during a career, even if it happens only once every five or ten years. A newcomer has no such history to draw on, and the answer may exist only in someone else’s memory.

Morias explored this challenge in the research that earned him the European Master’s Thesis Award at EuroMaintenance 2026 in Luleå. His academic path combines business engineering and data analytics with a second master’s degree focusing on smart operations and maintenance. His interest in industrial environments began through Formula Student, where working with real-world data showed him how different industrial analytics can be from the relatively clean datasets found in sectors such as banking or retail.

His research also revealed an interesting divide in attitudes towards AI. Maintenance service providers tended to see it as an immediate business opportunity, while manufacturing companies responsible for their own maintenance were considerably more cautious. Service providers expected AI to have an impact quickly; manufacturers were more likely to talk first about pilots and only later about production use.

“Agentic AI combined with maintenance technologies, could help industry operate with fewer people as the workforce ages.”

Yet Morias sees practical applications already emerging. Root cause analysis reports and historical maintenance information can be digitalised and incorporated into AI-based systems, allowing technicians to search for previous incidents and identify possible causes and solutions much faster. The challenge is that many organisations must first create a knowledge base on which such systems depend.

“You cannot start from scratch and simply say, ‘I’m going to build an AI solution.’ You have to make sure the knowledge that gives your company its competitive edge is in the system.”
Concerns about hallucinations should not prevent experimentation either, he argues. With appropriate guardrails, source information and human validation, AI does not need to be perfect to create value. Even when an expert must verify its recommendation, substantial time can still be saved.

Looking ahead, Morias expects the discussion to move increasingly from generative AI towards agentic AI, where systems can reason through more complex problems and take actions autonomously. Combined with sensor data and other maintenance technologies, this could eventually help industry operate effectively with fewer people as Europe’s workforce ages.
Receiving the award in Luleå was an unexpected honour for Morias, and EuroMaintenance itself also made an impression. It was his first time at the event, which he describes as well organised and rich in interesting speakers and conversations. He particularly valued meeting maintenance professionals from Belgium and the Netherlands and learning more about industry in northern Sweden and Scandinavia.

The prominence of AI throughout the conference also reflected how quickly the conversation has changed.

“When I started my thesis, AI was still much more of a niche subject. Now it is becoming mainstream, and people everywhere are asking where it is going in their own industry.”

For Morias, that question has a distinctly European dimension. If industry can use AI to preserve expertise, improve productivity and compensate for demographic change, he believes it could become an important part of maintaining Europe’s competitiveness.