Mike PleziaInside service technician, Clark Associates · Commercial Equipment, HVAC, and Refrigeration professional

AI: Not for Diagnosis, But for Thinking

7 Oct 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:51

In this segment, the speaker outlines a disciplined approach for technicians when incorporating AI into troubleshooting. He emphasizes that technicians must first observe the system, take measurements, understand the sequence of operations, and form their own hypothesis. Only after this foundational work should AI be introduced, primarily as a sanity‑check tool—to verify whether a hypothesis makes sense, to challenge a diagnosis, or to help interpret manuals and schematics. AI is presented as an aid that deepens thinking, not as a replacement for human diagnostic judgment.

Chapters

Analyzing a data tag? Sure. Finding, you know, manuals, schematics, helping you to interpret a schematic? Okay. But AI is not gonna be diagnosing for you, nor should it be. Observe, measure, understand the sequence of operations, form your own hypothesis, then bring in the AI. Now, AI for sanity checking, you know, so my, my unit's pumping down. Does it make sense that the compressor could be bad? You know, that's not a bad question for AI because it's simply a sanity check. It's not an actual diagnosis. Asking, what am I overlooking? Asking it to challenge your diagnosis. These are, these are the types of questions that we can use AI for to help us to think more deeply, which actually causes us to be stronger as technicians, not replacing us nor replacing our thinking.