{"id":109038,"date":"2026-07-17T02:42:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T02:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/109038\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T02:42:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T02:42:16","slug":"clinging-to-legacy-systems-most-manufacturers-still-do-not-embrace-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/109038\/","title":{"rendered":"Clinging to Legacy Systems, Most Manufacturers Still Do Not Embrace AI"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tOnly one out of 10 manufacturers<\/a> across sectors has deployed artificial intelligence<\/a> at scale, while most of them focus their resources on reshoring operations<\/a> at the price of higher labor costs, a new global survey said.<\/p>\n

\n\tParsec Automation, which has been helping manufacturers<\/a> digitize their operations since 1993, polled 1,200 industry leaders across global markets last February. The respondents were a mix of executive, operational, and technical roles across different sectors.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe latest report paints a picture of a manufacturing<\/a> industry that is still latched to legacy systems, with an eagerness to dabble in AI<\/a>, but with second thoughts about fully committing to it. The reasons vary, but the top barrier is the high cost of implementation (40 percent), followed by data privacy and security concerns (39 percent), and difficulty integrating with existing systems (38 percent).<\/p>\n

\n\tAs such, only 10 percent of manufacturers have integrated AI at scale, with 72 percent only adopting it at some form. They use AI mostly for quality control (50 percent), IT operations (46 percent), and supply chain management (45 percent).<\/p>\n

\n\tThe high price of implementing AI at scale comes at a time when manufacturers find themselves in the middle of cost cutting measures in response to tariffs<\/a>. More than two-thirds of manufacturers (70 percent) has already reshored or are in the process of doing so\u2014more than double from 2024 when it was just 33 percent.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cManufacturers are not operating in a stable environment,\u201d the report read. \u201cThey are navigating structural volatility defined by geopolitical shifts, reshoring acceleration, cost pressure, labor constraints, and rapid AI adoption.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe report said the industry is entering \u201ca new phase of digital transformation,\u201d which requires companies to go beyond just having AI ambitions.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe key differentiator will not be who adopts technology first\u2014but who successfully integrates, governs, and operationalizes across operations. In 2026, resilience and competitive advantage will be defined not by the number of technologies deployed, but by the discipline with which they are executed,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

\n\tMost manufacturers (70 percent) are more focused on cost-cutting even when see their supply chain resiliency improving in the past year, the report noted. It also underscored that reshoring has come with crucial trade-offs: supply chain resilience for higher labor costs, geopolitical control for talent shortages, reduced lead times for increased operational complexity.<\/p>\n

\n\tAside from these challenges, manufacturers still must contend with perennial issues, such as a misconception that manufacturing<\/a> is a \u201clow-skill, labor-intensive field,\u201d which is hurting recruiting efforts. More than half of them (60 percent) said IT and tech specialists are the most difficult roles to fill, even more than quality assurance staff (49 percent) and management (39 percent). <\/p>\n

\n\tRegardless, many of these manufacturers will need to upskill their workforce, and 72 percent said doing so will be \u201cvery or extremely important over the next three years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Only one out of 10 manufacturers across sectors has deployed artificial intelligence at scale, while most of them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,25,1817,27527],"class_list":["post-109038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ai","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-manufacturing","tag-tariff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}