地毯制造可能是世界上最古老的技术工种之一，但即便是这一传统行业也已开始采用最现代的技术——人工智能（AI）。
Carpet making may be one of the oldest skilled jobs in the world, but even this traditional industry has begun to adopt the most modern of technologies – Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Kukoon Rugs 是一家家族企业，通过线上销售以及英国和爱尔兰的一些最大零售连锁店进行销售。
Kukoon Rugs is a family-owned firm that sells online and through some of the biggest retail chains in the UK and Ireland.
首席执行官保罗·瓦利表示，AI 让企业更具竞争力，使他能够扩大此前无法扩大的业务板块。
Chief Executive Paul Vallely says AI allows the business to be more competitive, allowing him to scale up parts of the firm that he previously wouldn't have been able to.
“我认为每个部门都在大量使用它，几乎是每天都在用。从财务到商业、市场营销、供应链再到产品部门皆是如此。”在承认家族企业在纽里拥有悠久历史的同时，他相信 AI 等技术只会增强这一传统。
"I think every department uses it extensively, pretty much daily. That's from finance through to commercial, marketing, supply chain, and product." While acknowledging the history of his family's business in Newry, he believes technology like AI can only enhance it.
“地毯制作已有数千年历史，在该地区也存在了非常非常长的时间。
"Rug making has been around for thousands of years, and has been around in this area for a long, long time.
“产品本身可能变化不大，但我们设计和创造产品、将产品推向客户、再将产品送达客户的每一个环节，都在发生根本性变化。而这正是通过 AI 实现的。”人工智能常被指责对创意产业产生负面影响，但瓦利表示情况并非如此。
"The product itself maybe doesn't change too much, but every single bit of the process as to how we design and create the product, market it to the customer, and then get it to the customer, that's fundamentally changing. And that's through AI." Artificial Intelligence has often been accused of having a negative impact on creative industries but Vallely says this isn't the case.
“AI 让我们能够完成更精准、更高效、快得多且更深思熟虑的工作，并释放了团队的时间，使其能进行更多分析、更多研究，并真正产出更多创意成果。”瓦利表示，“对我们而言，采用 AI 最大的影响首先是消除了一些办公室岗位上最糟糕、最枯燥的任务，其次大概是激发了团队的热情和投入度。”
"AI is allowing us to do more accurate, more efficient, and far faster and more thoughtful work, and it's releasing the team's time to look at more analysis, more research, and actually produce more creative work." Vallely says the "biggest impact for us to adopting AI has been, first of all, the removal of some of the very worst and most boring tasks across office-based roles, and probably the excitement and engagement of the team".
“随着大家开始采用并真正认可它，每个人都能看到机会，去完成以前从未能完成、达到以前从未能达到标准的工作，而且他们真正腾出了时间去做更多事情。” Kukoon 并非唯一一家为增强竞争力而利用人工智能的企业。
"I think as everyone started to adopt it and really buy into it, everyone can see opportunities to do work that they were never able to do before to a standard they were never able to do it, and they're really getting their time released to do more." Kukoon is not the only business to harness artificial intelligence in a bid to become more competitive.
制造业在北爱尔兰也有悠久传统，19 世纪工业革命后，该地因亚麻和造船业闻名世界。
The manufacturing industry also has a long tradition in Northern Ireland, which became world famous for linen and shipbuilding in the wake of the industrial revolution in the 19th century.
Seating Matters 位于利马沃迪郊外的斯佩林山脉，生产专业临床座椅。
Nestled in the Sperrin Mountains just outside Limavady is Seating Matters which manufactures specialist clinical seating.
其产品出口至全球各地的医疗机构，包括美国和澳大利亚。其座椅还曾出现在《艾默代尔农场》和《加冕街》等电视剧中。
Their products are exported to healthcare facilities right across the globe including the US and Australia. Their seats have also featured in television dramas including Emmerdale and Coronation Street.
对于董事总经理马丁·蒂尔尼而言，AI 有其优势和劣势，但已成为公司日常工作不可或缺的一部分。
For managing director Martin Tierney, AI has its strengths and weaknesses, but it is now an integrated part of his company's daily work.
“AI 不会取代你的工作，但懂 AI 的人可能会取代你的工作，所以我们非常拥抱它，鼓励员工使用，并在护栏机制内以明智方式应用。” 蒂尔尼表示。
"AI is not going to replace your job, but someone who knows AI could replace your job, so we're very much embracing it, encouraging people to use it, and doing it within guardrails in a sensible way," Tierney says.
虽然蒂尔尼认为该技术在客户服务方面表现不佳，但它彻底改变了许多后台职能。
While Tierney feels the technology is poor at customer service, it has revolutionised many of the back-office functions.
“在会计、财务、数据以及从 20 个不同来源汇总信息等所有繁琐事务上，它都是帮你达成目标的绝佳工具。” 蒂尔尼将 AI 的威力比作计算器。
"On all the laborious things like accounting and finance and data and pulling together information from 20 different sources, it's a really good tool to help you get there." Tierney says he likens the power of AI to that of a calculator.
“早在 19 世纪，一切靠纸笔完成。没人有计算器，人们担心计算器出现会取代所有会计。
"You know, way back in the 1800s, and everything's done on pen and paper. No one had a calculator, and they thought, what if a calculator comes along and replaces all the accountants?
“结果并没有。它让会计更高效，随后 Excel 问世，又让他们更高效了一次。”
"Well, that didn't happen. It allowed the accountant to be more productive, and then Excel came along and made them more productive again.
“AI 正在再次做这件事，但这次是‘加强版’。”他说，在企业全面实施 AI 不仅提高了生产力，还创造了新的岗位。
"AI is doing that again, but doing it on steroids." He says implementing AI across his business has not only improved productivity it has also led to new jobs being created.
“现在的团队成员比以前更多，AI 让这些人能更高效地工作，从事更有智力含量的工作，减少枯燥的工作。
"We have more team members now than we did before, and AI is allowing those people to be more productive, to do more intelligent work, and less of the boring work.
“没人喜欢走上楼去翻文件柜、拉开抽屉、一页页翻阅纸质文件。大家都知道，那不是任何人时间的好用法。”Tierney 说，AI 的一大优点是他不需要拥有 IT 学位就能使用这些软件。
"No one likes going upstairs and into a filing cabinet to pull out a drawer and flick through your paper. You know that's not a good use of anyone's time." Tierney says one of the great things about AI is that he doesn't need to have an IT degree to make use of the software.
“你只需跟它聊天，说：‘我要做的是这样，能帮我把这个想法充实一下吗？’”Seating Matters 鼓励员工利用 AI 协助解决问题、加快枯燥任务的处理，但他们是在护栏范围内操作的。Tierney 把这比作“拉着手刹开车”。“我们不会把患者信息或财务信息放进去。
"You just chat to it, say: 'Here's what I'm trying to do, could you help me flesh out this idea?'" While staff at Seating Matters are encouraged to use AI to help solve problems and speed up some of the more mundane tasks, they do operate within guardrails. Tierney likens it to driving with the handbrake on. "We're not putting patient information or financial information on here.
“是的，我们可以用它筛选数据，帮我们找到六年前可能与今天相关的一封邮件，但我们的做法是始终有人把关。一切都会有人复核。”
"Yes, we can use it to sift through data to help us find an email from six years ago that might be relevant today, but we're doing it in a way that there's always a human at the wheel.
关于这个故事的更多内容，请看 BBC 的《The View》节目。
It's always checked by someone." There's more on this story on the BBC's The View