The evolution in manufacturing automation has helped manufacturers across all industries to become more efficient and profitable. Today, it is expected that many operations within a modern production plant to include some level of automation to drive production efficiency and to reduce human errors. As we step into the era of smart manufacturing, this expectation will continue to grow, not only in the scope of automation, but also its sophistication. With key enabling technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), engineering applications on the factory floor are becoming more intelligent and autonomous. This paper highlights examples in the semiconductor manufacturing industry on how AI can further push the envelope in automation allowing manufacturers to achieve results faster and be even more efficient in process control.