Automotive and agricultural equipment manufacturers create service manuals for every new model.
Historically, farm equipment dealerships and automotive service departments would have shelves of those printed manuals with a lot of greasy fingerprints all over them, as mechanics pulled them out and researched a particular repair procedure.
Today, those shelves would need to be large to store all the repair manuals a brand has created in the last few decades.
Most service procedure manuals today are accessed online or stored in a computer. But finding the right page to locate information about a specific procedure can still take time.
One company thinks it has found a way for mechanics to more quickly access the information, as well as a way to improve on it.
AGvisorPRO has added visorPRO, a digital system powered by artificial intelligence, designed for dealerships.
“AGvisorPRO is a vision to connect agriculture in a brand new way,” said company chief executive officer Rob Saik about why the company was created. VisorPRO is a more specific tool than the original app AGvisorPRO developed to help access a variety of information.
“We’ve been working on the development of AI, a large language model,” he said. “We’ll work with an equipment dealer. For example, we’ll set up a ‘visorVAULT’ for that dealership. It will belong to that dealership. Into that visorVAULT the dealership can load up their technical manuals. Anything technical can be loaded into their ‘vault’, any format can go in. Now we layer in the AI.”
The AI responds to a search question and displays the requested information. It also provides the manual and page number references for the source the response is based on.
Saik said by providing the source location for the information, users can be sure the AI, which is known for sometimes making up incorrect responses, has provided a verifiably accurate answer.
Another key feature is service technicians can input comments and advice based on their experience in performing different repair functions. That would greatly add value to the “vault,” aside from what is written in the technical manuals.
“The next guy that comes along will get the service manual information (and advice from other mechanics who’ve input their comments),” said Saik. “So every day the dealerships’ visorVAULT gets stronger and stronger.
“This allows the dealership to bring in junior people. As trust grows in the vault, you can see how this would expedite service to farmers. If we get this right, a farmer won’t have to sit on hold waiting for an answer. An answer can come back much quicker.”
Saik said the visorVAULT would also help when it comes to servicing legacy equipment, long out of production.
“What happens when the guy who really knows, say, Case 8010 combines walks out the door,” he said. “His knowledge is gone. So someone new who is trying to service an 8010, where does he get that information (and experience) from?
“Well, with visorPRO that information is captured in the visorVAULT. That (experienced) person’s knowledge is captured indefinitely. It builds that person’s knowledge into a library that extends into perpetuity.”
The company’s main website is getagvisorpro.com, but the new equipment-related visorPRO has its own web address: visorpro.ai.
