While AI might still be in the starting blocks in manufacturing, awareness of the technology’s potential is very much present. Our latest AI study with over 100 industrial sector professionals confirms this. A solid 58 % of those questioned placed the use of new technologies at the very top of their agenda. Another figure also really stood out for me: 52 % of the survey participants are sure that investments in AI will lead to competitive advantages over the next five years. That’s a solid 20 percentage points more than we observed in the cross-sector survey. In other words, the industrial sector is fired up for AI. At this point, no one needs convincing about the advantages it offers.
Typical use cases include systems that “learn” based on their operational processes and thereby simplify predictive maintenance, not to mention the collection and analysis of product usage data which allows for brand new financing models or service offers. As it stands, however, industry-specific use cases such as predictive maintenance or digital twins – simulated models of components, processes or systems – are as yet in use at only roughly a quarter of the study participants. One slightly more hopeful takeaway is that a good third of industrial companies already has concrete plans for the introduction of corresponding solutions.
