Manufacturing is contending with the largest disruption in global trade since the pandemic. Moving target tariffs, changing political relationships, a push for onshoring and the AI juggernaut are all jostling the traditional manufacturing order. So, what does industry, academia, and government agree on as the best course for manufacturing at this time in history? The answer from our roundtable was clear: Innovate, diversify and digitize to survive. Automation Alley’s latest roundtable on top trends influencing global manufacturing in 2025 focused heavily on the opportunities, challenges, and workforce issues shaping the sector this year. The discussions revealed a manufacturing industry grappling with uncertainty while cautiously optimistic about innovation.
Opportunities
The manufacturing landscape is undergoing a profound transformation, presenting forward thinking companies with opportunities to enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and create innovative products. Two areas stand out for their potential to revolutionize production in 2025: AI-powered design and personalization at scale. Generative design software now allows engineers to input specific parameters such as material restrictions, weight limitations, and performance requirements and receive dozens of optimized design alternatives in minutes rather than weeks. According to a study by MIT, highly skilled workers improved performance by nearly 40% when using generative AI, compared to those without AI support. Supporting this data is also Rockwell Automation’s 2025 State of Smart Manufacturing Report, which surveyed 1,500 worldwide manufacturing leaders. Forty-one percent plan on deploying AI and machine learning technology to fill in skills gaps and labor shortages.
Read this article in full in our Integr8 Playbook, “Global Trends & Supply Chain: Planning for a Shifting World,” here.
