AI in Industrial Manufacturing: Where It's Been and Where It's Going

Long before the COVID-19 pandemic, manufacturing companies were already embracing emerging technologies to improve their operational efficiencies and identify new ways to grow.

A new KPMG report, Thriving in an AI World, found that 93% of industrial manufacturing respondents have moderate or fully functional AI implemented into their processes.

Now, they're also using AI and machine learning tools to analyze and improve supply chain flexibility, in addition to more traditional cost-reduction and talent management functions. More specifically, industrial manufacturers are leveraging AI in the following areas:

As companies speed up their deployment of AI to bolster defects monitoring, predictive and preventative maintenance, and forecasting accuracy processes—and as desire for continued AI adoption in the sector increases—cybersecurity breaches and surveillance remain the greatest potential risks for surveyed industrial manufacturers.

While strengthening the quality and security of key technologies can help ease some of these concerns, 64% of industry respondents indicated their companies struggle to identify the best AI technologies.

As digital transformation surges in a wide range of industries, the adoption of AI technologies will continue to present new opportunities for industrial manufacturing companies to reassess and streamline everything from their cost structures to skillsets desired across the board.

KPMG's National Audit Industry Leader for Industrial Manufacturing, Anne Zavarella, spotlights the key areas where AI capabilities are being readily adopted among manufacturers in a piece in the Journal of Accountancy. You can read it here .