Can AI Replace Manual Data Work in Engineering?

AI is fast. But is it accurate enough for engineering?

When pulling technical data from reports or specs—like pressure, temperature, or flow rate many engineers are turning to AI. But there's one big debate: should you ask AI to do it all at once... or go one value at a time?

One-Shot Prompting

This method gives AI all your documents and asks it to pull every required number in one go.

Why we use it?

• It’s quick—seconds instead of hours

• Saves mental energy on repetitive work

• Feels like magic when it works

But there's a problem: the AI might:

• Guess wrong values

• Confuse similar terms (e.g., pressure vs. set pressure)

• Pull from the wrong file if documents overlap

In tests, AI often made subtle but critical errors—especially when multiple documents conflicted.

We ran two workflows:

One-Shot Method: All documents, all data, one go

One-by-One Method: One value per prompt, one file at a time

Result?

• One-shot was faster, but less accurate

• One-by-one was slower, but gave clean, traceable results

If you’re working on critical systems—like pipelines, chemical processes, or safety valves—accuracy wins every time.

AI can be a game-changer in engineering… if used wisely. Speed is great, but reliability still rules.

At Singularity, we're building workflows that balance both.

Want to learn how?

Advance your AI skills with our Udemy course https://www.udemy.com/course/singularity-ai-for-engineers/?referralCode=75D71AF4C0EADB8975FF