Global digital business and technology services company NTT DATA, revealed new data that shows manufacturing organizations worldwide are increasingly turning to Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) to establish smart factories, spur innovation, improve productivity, build resilience and gain competitive advantage. The report – “Feet on the Floor, Eyes on AI: Do you have a plan or a problem?”, however, also uncovered significant challenges on workforce and infrastructure readiness as well as ethical frameworks for governance.
When successfully integrated into core operations, GenAI provides powerful tools to improve operations, inform decision-making and deliver innovation.
The study surveyed more than 500 manufacturing leaders and decision makers in 34 countries.
Key findings include:
- 95% (APAC: 97%) of respondents said GenAI is already directly improving efficiency and bottom-line performance.
- 94% (APAC: 99%) expect the integration of Internet of Things (i.e., IoT/edge) data into GenAI models will significantly improve the accuracy and relevance of AI-generated outputs.
- 91% (APAC: 97%) say combining digital twins and GenAI will improve both physical asset performance and supply chain resilience.
- Respondents said their most frequent use cases are supply chain and inventory management; knowledge management; quality control; research and development; and process automation.
“AI is streamlining processes and redefining what’s possible across the entire manufacturing value chain, from supply chain predictions to quality control,” said Prasoon Saxena, Co-Lead, Products Industries, NTT DATA, Inc. “GenAI can help organizations achieve flexibility in fast-changing business environments, especially in the face of uncertain tariff policies worldwide.”
Challenges to Success
Although satisfaction with AI initiatives has surged over the past year, manufacturers still face significant challenges that include:
- Infrastructure: 92% (APAC: 91%) of manufacturers said old technologies hinder vital initiatives, but less than half have conducted a full infrastructure readiness assessment.
- Complementary technologies: 94% (APAC: 99%) expect the integration of Internet of Things (i.e., IoT/edge) data into GenAI models will significantly improve the accuracy and relevance of AI-generated outputs, yet not all are confident in their ability to complete such integrations.
- Responsible frameworks: While ethical AI is on the radar, only 47% (APAC: 48%) of manufacturing leaders strongly agree their organization follows a robust framework that balances risk with value creation.
- Workforce readiness: Two-thirds (APAC: 53%) of manufacturers say their employees lack the necessary skills to use GenAI effectively, creating functional and operational disadvantages and risks.
- Data Management: only 41% of global manufacturers (APAC: 46%) strongly agree they have sufficient data storage and processing capabilities to support GenAI workloads. Poor-quality or unreliable data remains one of the top barriers to successful adoption.
Additionally, the report highlighted that 87% of automotive manufacturers acknowledged that GenAI ambitions conflict with or negatively affect their sustainability goals.
“The most successful manufacturing organizations have already integrated GenAI into essential operations,” Saxena said. “Companies failing to plan, deploy and govern GenAI strategically will not only have a problem, they may be planning to fail.”