When Will AI Scale in Manufacturing? - Connected World

Here at Connected World and The Peggy Smedley Show, we often talk about how to scale AI (artificial intelligence) in manufacturing. We live, eat, and breathe this topic. But if we really look at the numbers, it tells a much different story in 2026. Only 22% of organizations have successfully scaled AI across multiple business units or adopted an AI-first approach, according to a Gartner survey.

That number stopped me in my tracks because it tells us something important about where we really are with AI: We have spent years talking about transformation, investing in AI, and experimenting with use cases, but most organizations still have not figured out how to scale those investments across the business.

At the same time, the appetite for AI is not slowing down. Gartner found 85% of functional leaders plan to increase AI spending in 2026, even though organizations dedicated an average of 12%...

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