Never say the pack mentality along with customer pressure don’t apply to manufacturing technologies.
Results of a brand-new survey by Milpitas, California-based intelligent automation vendor ABBYY show two thirds—67%—of 1,200 IT decision-makers in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Australia, and Singapore reported that the FOMO phenomenon, or “fear of missing out,” was a significant factor in their decisions to adopt artificial intelligence technologies.
In addition, ABBYY’s State of Intelligent Automation Report AI Trust Barometer found that the other big drivers for AI investment are to increase efficiency and customer service (65%) with 47% of respondents admitting pressure from customers played a part.
See also: How to avoid the AI hype-to-disillusionment cycle
Maxime Vermeir, senior director of AI strategy for ABBYY, remarked: “Lack of expertise in implementing AI is a concern for manufacturers, and the skill gap may hinder their progress as AI becomes more widespread in other sectors. To effectively integrate AI, manufacturers should upskill employees through training, as well as investing in hiring specialists in AI. Developing their expertise in AI will unlock the extensive benefits of AI for manufacturers.”
Most in manufacturing IT trust AI, worry about the skills gap
An overwhelming 87% of IT leaders in the manufacturing sector report that they trust AI to benefit their business, according to the small ABBYY survey, which was conducted in June. The survey results also show that the top most popular tools among respondents are generative AI tech such as large language models, chatbots, digital assistants and ChatGPT (71%), followed by machine learning (55%) and purpose-built AI such as intelligent document processing (52%).
See also: Speak up, add your voice to our 2024 State of Initiative Report
“It’s interesting to see that IT leaders in manufacturing trust small language models the most, perhaps due to the issue of hallucinations and inaccurate information reported by generative AI and large language models,” Vermeir said.
However, there are concerns about the current and future use of AI, the respondents reported, with lack of expertise and talent (43%) being the biggest worry.
Technical complexity (37%) also is a concern for manufacturers, according to the survey, as well as legal and compliance risks (36%). Of those who do not trust the technology, the main fear in the survey was cybersecurity and data breaches (53%) and reliability and accuracy of data (51%).
Podcast: AI's influence on the evolution of big data
Despite these concerns, 91% of IT leaders in manufacturing say they plan to increase investment in AI in 2025, with almost a quarter (24%) pledging to raise their budgets by 21% to 30%, perhaps due to the fact that 85% are already seeing results from AI use.
On the subject of ethical and trustworthy AI, 93% of manufacturers are confident their company is following all government regulations on the use of AI, yet only 59% admit they have policies in place that their product, security, and/or compliance teams adhere to.
Where AI is already used in manufacturing
The ABBYY survey asked IT stakeholders which departments at manufacturers are most likely to use artificial intelligence. They were:
- Marketing and operations (customs processing, warehousing, supply chain management) (47%)
- Sales 40%
- Accounts payable (34%)
- Finance administration (31%)
- Compliance (28%)
