We met with 177 manufacturing executives to understand their top priorities and how they are preparing for and adapting to key trends shaping their organisations. This year, executives are prioritising:

  • Advancing AI and data strategies to build more sustainable, efficient and resilient value chains
  • Addressing talent shortages by building stronger employer brands, upskilling and fostering better IT-business alignment
  • Rethinking operations to focus on supply chain sovereignty through nearshoring and reshoring
  • Pushing forward with modernisation efforts to increase efficiency and streamline operations
  • Turning ESG performance into a competitive advantage while complying with regulations
Female and male engineers in a lab

Rising economic pressures accelerate AI adoption, identified as the top investment area

+27pp
year-over-year increase in executives citing a high impact of the shift in the world economic order
67%
indicate difficulty hiring IT talent
81%
say digitisation has a high impact on business models

  • 66%
    cite shift in world economic order
  • 66%
    cite climate change
  • 58%
    cite changing political, fiscal and regulatory environments
  • 52%
    cite technology and digital acceleration
  • 40%
    cite changing social demographics
Automation engineer uses tablet for programming robotic arm in factory.

42% of organisations generating expected results from their digitisation strategies—the digital leaders—share common traits that help them deliver superior performance. In manufacturing, digital leaders:

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Have an AI strategy for either the entire enterprise or for parts of it

+27pp

vs. others*

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Have highly agile business models to adapt to digitisation

+26pp

vs. others*

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Have a holistic data strategy extending to the ecosystem

+28pp

vs. others*

* "Digital leaders” are those producing expected results, and “others” are those building or launching their digital strategies.
pp = percentage points

At CGI, we help manufacturing leaders accelerate ROI-led transformation by modernising core platforms, scaling AI, navigating regulations, and embedding sustainability to unlock smart, secure and resilient operations. Learn more about:

 

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