Efficiency driving industrial AI spend, says Cisco

Industrial AI is gaining traction as 61% of enterprises are now in production with AI in industrial operations, according to Cisco's State of Industrial AI Report.

The report surveyed more than 1,000 operational technology (OT) decision-makers to get a read on the intersection of OT, IT and AI. Use cases surfaced in the report include process automation, quality inspection predictive maintenance, logistics and energy forecasting.

Cisco also found that the big concerns about AI in OT revolved around networking, cybersecurity and IT/OT operating models.

Key findings include:

• 83% of organizations plan to increase AI spending.
• 42% are using AI to reduce costs.

• Robotics is seen as a promising technology, but investment priorities are more about efficiency.
• 97% expect AI workloads to tax their industrial networks.
• 40% say cybersecurity is the biggest obstacle to scaling AI.
• 57% report some level of IT and OT collaboration, but that means 43% have limited or no collaboration.
• 47% with limited collaboration between IT and OT cited network instability as an operational challenge.

Related:

• IFS teams up with Anthropic, Siemens, Boston Dynamics, 1X, showcases industrial AI use cases
• Anthropic: Claude eyes real world impact, industrial use cases
• Nvidia highlights its robotics momentum as Qualcomm makes its platform case
• Industrial AI investments start to pick up
• QAD | Redzone aims to fuse AI, process intelligence to reinvent manufacturing