Boris Klaydman
WorkApple + IBM Partnership

Halved diagnostic time for field technicians with AI and AR

Technicians point a device at the equipment and see what is wrong, with AR labels over the real machine and AI-guided repair steps. Diagnostic time was cut in half, and the work was showcased on Apple.com and at the IBM Think conference.

Client
Apple + IBM Partnership
Role
Design and Product Manager
Year
2015 to 2019
50%reduction in diagnostic time
30%higher first-time repair accuracy
108enterprise iOS apps shipped in the partnership's first year

The problem

A field technician in front of an unfamiliar machine loses most of their time to diagnosis, not repair. Manuals are generic. The machine in front of you is specific.

The Golden Thread: a QA technician’s full day, written as a narrative before any screens, so every feature had to earn its place in a real morning

Day two: paper sketches of the inspection flow, from history and symptoms to visual scan and diagnosis

What we built

AI Vision for field service technicians: point an iPhone at the equipment and the app recognizes components, overlays labels on the live camera view, and walks the repair step by step, valve by valve. It ran on iPhone and Apple Watch, keeping hands free where it mattered.

The scan flow: visual scan of the machine, a diagnosis with confidence level, and repair steps grounded in what the camera sees

In the field: live AR labels on the actual equipment, with the Apple Watch carrying instructions when both hands are busy

This was one product within the Apple + IBM partnership, where I helped establish the discovery, design and development process that shipped 108 enterprise iOS apps in the first year, delivered 360 mobile apps across healthcare, finance, insurance and transportation, and trained more than 500 designers and product managers in UX methodology.

Impact

Diagnostic time was cut in half. First-time repair accuracy rose 30 percent. The product was showcased on Apple.com and at the IBM Think conference.

The work in public: showcased at IBM Think and featured on apple.com, generating interest from prospective enterprise clients