Industrial AI adoption will nearly double within a year, from 32 percent to 59 percent, signaling an “invisible revolution” in manufacturing, maintenance, and supply chain. This is according to the global IFS Invisible Revolution Study 2025, conducted by software vendor IFS among more than 1,700 senior decision makers at industrial enterprises globally.
While 88 percent of the organizations surveyed already report profit growth thanks to Industrial AI, IFS warns of the “AI Execution Gap.”
This is a growing gap between the speed of AI implementation and the lack of competence and confidence among employees.
This gap has been formed by companies moving faster into AI adoption than their staff are able to upskill. In the next 12 months, the number of companies still in early AI experimentation will collapse from 24% to just 7% moving up in the maturity curve, yet 52% of senior leaders say their management teams don’t fully understand AI, and 99% of global workforces will require major reskilling to harness the positive impacts of AI adoption on the industrial world.
“The pace of adoption is inspiring, but the next big unlock will come from scaling trust, strategy, and talent,” says Kriti Sharma, CEO, IFS Nexus Black. “AI is a core driver of business performance, it’s time to plug the AI Execution Gap – bring people, process and product together to deliver tangible outcomes,”
Despite growing confidence in AI’s potential to boost productivity and growth, there is a major trust problem:
Only 29% of global leaders are comfortable allowing AI to make strategic decisions autonomously, while 68% say a human must still confirm or approve AI-generated outputs.
However, silver lining is that 65% of global leaders support the creation of an independent, international AI regulatory body to help close the trust gap.
Despite the lack of preparation, the financial results of Industrial AI are impressive. On average, 88 percent of organisations report profit growth.
Industrial AI transforms core processes by:
54% of global organizations are using automation AI, while 45% are deploying predictive AI. Already, 35% are experimenting with Agentic AI, capable of autonomously executing decisions across workflows.
This technological shift is also accelerating the transition to servitization for 77 percent of respondents, where the focus shifts from product sales to outcome-based services, where businesses deliver uptime, performance, and continuous value instead of just physical goods.
The next 12 months will be crucial. According to IFS, Industrial AI is no longer confined to innovation labs but powering frontline operations. organizations that close the AI Execution Gap now will shape the future of industrial leadership.
