Artificial intelligence is emerging as the strongest lever for manufacturing sector profitability in the year ahead, according to the Future Ready Manufacturing Study 2025 released by Tata Consultancy Services in partnership with Amazon Web Services. The study indicates that three in four global manufacturing leaders expect AI to be among the top contributors to operating margins by 2026, even as only a fifth feel fully prepared for large scale AI deployment across plants and supply chains.
The research, based on responses from 216 senior executives across North America and Europe, shows an industry moving quickly toward intelligence driven and increasingly autonomous operations. Agentic AI is seen as a pivotal capability, with nearly three fourths of leaders expecting AI agents to take over between 11 and 50 percent of routine production decisions by 2028. The report also highlights significant gains in real time supply chain visibility, improved predictability, and early productivity benefits from AI enabled quality and planning use cases.
Anupam Singhal, President of Manufacturing at Tata Consultancy Services, said precision led performance in factories is set to expand dramatically as AI orchestrates decisions at scale. He emphasised that the sector now has a clear path toward resilient, adaptive, and future ready operations shaped by real time decision intelligence.
Ozgur Tohumcu, General Manager for Automotive and Manufacturing at Amazon Web Services, said manufacturers are facing unprecedented pressures from volatile supply chains, tightening margins, and workforce shortages. He noted that cloud powered AI is enabling a shift from manual and reactive processes to self optimising systems that predict, adapt, and act with minimal intervention, signalling an era where autonomy becomes central to factory performance.
Tata Consultancy Services said it continues to support global manufacturers through its expertise in digital manufacturing, cloud modernisation, engineering, and intelligence led operations. The company’s Manufacturing AI for Agentic Futures offering and wider capabilities across supply chain resilience and predictive quality aim to help enterprises build agile, scalable, and continuously adaptive factories.
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