Will 2026 Be the Year AI Moves from Possibility to Production in Manufacturing?

Looking back over the last five years, volatile supply chains and persistent labor shortages had every leader in the industry searching for the path to long-term competitive advantage. In 2025, AI became a potential solution to these challenges, but its real world use was limited. 

This year, after extensive experimentation, AI appears ready to make the leap from possibility to reality on the factory floor and in broader operations. However, its ability to make a lasting impact in 2026 and beyond lies in how leaders redesign their operations to enhance its capabilities. 

Strengthening digital architecture 

Manufacturers are looking to AI, especially AI agents, that can act autonomously to drive value from the back office to the front office. These tools create efficiencies in industrial spaces because of their ability to perceive, reason and act. Deloitte’s 2026 Manufacturing Industry Outlook found that AI can help organizations: 

• Monitor potential sources of disruption and risk due to trade policies, tariffs or weather events, with visibility into Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers (and beyond). Then act on creating a mitigation plan, which a human can then approve. 
• Capture institutional knowledge from retiring employees. After a few conversations with an expert, AI tools can reiterate years of tips to a new wave of talent, solving common but complex new employees may face. 
• Improve your customers’ experience by simplifying and accelerating equipment repair. After being trained on a wealth of specific knowledge, AI tools can help humans understand a problem and streamline decision making.

However, in a rush to see the benefits of this tech, many have tried to simply bolt on AI to existing processes and infrastructure, expecting improvements without first looking critically at their business objectives and desired future state. That’s because there’s still a lingering mindset of digital efforts sitting on the periphery in the domain of IT teams or small innovation groups tinkering on separate tracks from core operations.

In 2026, leading manufacturers should reframe digital transformation not as a side project, but as the foundation running beneath every strategic ambition. The companies gaining ground will be those focused on integrating scattered data and building modern architectures designed to flex, scale and adapt. Those who treat digital infrastructure as non-negotiable — as central to manufacturing as power or water — will find themselves in a position to capitalize on growth goals and weather continued volatility.

Rethinking how work gets done

Once the foundation for AI is set, leaders can use it to not only fill workforce gaps but also make work safer and easier for human employees. 

Although more than 81% of task hours in manufacturing are expected to remain human-driven, AI can drive efficiency. Some manufacturers are using AI in targeted efforts like predictive maintenance or inventory optimization; but with a strong foundation, AI can achieve much more. 

In 2026, expect to see more AI-infused agents autonomously monitoring data streams across machines and processes, spotting anomalies, offering corrective actions and surfacing insights that human teams don’t have the bandwidth to gather alone. 

However, gleaning lasting value from these tools takes coordinated human-machine collaboration and thoughtful evaluation of existing processes. Often, a big challenge leaders overlook is the mindset of “we’ve always done it this way.” Deloitte’s 2026 Tech Trends report highlights this issue, noting that, as leaders are shifting from incremental IT management to orchestrating human-agent teams, building a culture that embraces innovation will be important to effectively implementing AI.

Paving the way for physical AI

The next chapter of AI in manufacturing is being written with the rise of physical AI: robots and autonomous tools endowed with sensors and intelligence that allow them to adapt, learn and collaborate alongside human teams. Although many organizations are still in the earliest phases of adoption, progress will be a trend to watch in 2026 and beyond.

Where automation once meant rigid, repetitive motion, today’s AI-driven machines are observers, learners and true partners to human workforces. The robots of the future will not only have more autonomy to complete tasks, but also new abilities to tackle tasks that previously were too difficult to automate — ones that, for example, require making split second decisions based on real time data. 

Sometimes they resemble humanoid forms, other times they may be quadrupeds or designed to be unique and task specific. No matter their purpose or presentation, Deloitte’s robotics and physical AI research has found that to realize the possibilities of physical AI, manufacturers must first confirm their data governance and cybersecurity are up to the task — a foundation that, again, underpins the most important tech investments. 

The 2026 leader checklist

Looking out across the industry as the year unfolds, a new competitive reality is taking shape: Manufacturers who redesign entire operations to support digital investment are emerging as durable leaders. They’re able to navigate uncertainty more nimbly, respond to market shifts with precision and capture growth ahead of the curve. Every leader should create a plan to map the digital tools that can benefit their business, then look critically at their current operations and check for gaps in the infrastructure that can make transformation a reality. 

This confirms they are not just participants in the next chapter of industrial progress, but authors of their own resilient future.

• A Practical Guide to Using AI for Data-Driven Plant Floor Transformation 
• How Semantic Intelligence Helps Manufacturers Cut Crisis Response Time from Weeks to Days 
• Why Bring-Your-Own-Agent Changes Industrial Automation