Producers are contemplating extra robots resembling ABB’s YuMi, in keeping with ABI Analysis. Credit score: ABB
Simply over half of worldwide producers, or 53%, are within the early phases of adopting new industrial robotic {hardware}, in keeping with the most recent “Industrial and Manufacturing Survey” by ABI Analysis. The worldwide know-how intelligence agency additionally discovered that 28% have already deployed robots inside their services.
The survey, performed between This autumn 2024 and Q1 of 2025 throughout the U.S., Germany, and Malaysia, discovered that producers consider that industrial robots are key to manufacturing methods to enhance high quality ranges. Forty p.c of respondents listed the adoption of robotics as a precedence for enhancing high quality, up from 34.1% within the earlier research.
Nineteen p.c of respondents stated they’ll think about adopting industrial robots throughout the subsequent 5 years, whereas 33% will think about the adoption of collaborative or cell robots throughout the identical timeframe.
“Adoption sentiment stays excessive throughout the assorted robotic type elements, indicating that producers are conscious of the benefits of automation and might establish aspects of their worth chains the place ROI [return on investment] might be delivered,” stated George Chowdhury, robotics business analyst at ABI Analysis.
“It’s vital to notice that these outcomes had been collected earlier than the latest financial uncertainty,” he noticed. “Feasibly, if this survey had been performed right this moment, we’d see an uptick within the variety of responders evaluating proofs of idea or contemplating adoption within the subsequent 12 months, according to reshoring expectations.”
Producers wish to compensate for expertise hole
Survey respondents ranged from manufacturing engineers to C-level executives, with most members holding positions as IT managers and above by way of seniority. The responses had been cut up equally between the three nations.
When queried, this group of producers claimed {that a} lack of understanding and inadequate time to implement new automation merchandise are the biggest boundaries to robotics adoption. An absence of the abilities wanted use new applied sciences additionally ranked excessive as a priority.
Concern of substitute by automated techniques was ranked low as a difficulty, stated ABI Analysis. Additional responses highlighted the significance of on boarding, ongoing assist, synthetic intelligence, and open utility programming interfaces (APIs) as key product options for choice makers.
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Generative AI is seen favorably
The survey supplied perception into the notion of generative AI for manufacturing functions. Fifty p.c of respondents agreed that generative AI can be utilized to optimize software paths, indicating a misalignment with the capabilities of AI-augmented robots and their supposed capabilities.
Optimizing software paths is a key functionality of ABB‘s Robotic Studio, NVIDIA‘s Isaac portfolio, and the choices of offline programming software program distributors resembling Visible Parts, Siemens, Dassault Systèmes, and Cenit. Against this, 63% of respondents acknowledged the worth of generative AI for predictive upkeep and 66% for optimizing manufacturing traces.
ABI stated these responses counsel that generative AI is taken into account an data know-how (IT) — used for planning and enhancing processes with knowledge — reasonably than an operational know-how (OT) for optimizing machine habits in actual time. Importantly, 62% of respondents agreed that generative AI can be utilized to plan, analyze, and optimize human-robot Interactions.
The survey discovered optimistic attitudes amongst producers towards robotics and its capability to proceed augmenting the business. Nonetheless, the respondents had been much less conscious of the worth proposition of superior AI plus robotics, asserted ABI Analysis.
“There’s a massive disconnect right here between the perceived capabilities of AI-augmented robots and the brand new merchandise that innovators are bringing to market,” stated Chowdhury. “Repairing this notion, by educating the market of the capabilities of AI-augmented robots, have to be the No. 1 precedence of authentic tools producers (OEMs) and techniques integrators in the event that they want to see larger uptake of {hardware} and for the worth of recent robotics merchandise to be realized by the manufacturing market.”
These findings are from ABI Analysis’s Manufacturing Survey H2 2024 market report. This report is a part of the firm‘s Industrial, Collaborative & Industrial Robotics analysis service, which incorporates analysis, knowledge, and ABI Insights.
