) Integration challenges are as much about people and culture as they are about technology, requiring cross-functional collaboration. Beyond chatbots, agentic AI is expected to evolve by the end of 2026, to address labor shortages and operational complexity.
The current China plus one supply realignment and data sovereignty concerns, particularly in the EU, will shape strategies. Sustainability is moving from branding to regulatory compliance, with funding increasingly tied to ecosystem-wide sustainability advancements.
The 2026 edition of Manufacturing Operations and Shop Floor Trends will focus on orchestrating automation, real-time data and cybersecurity to improve shop floor efficiency and sustainability. Manufacturers are accelerating physical-digital convergence, and more operators are turning to inspectors as robots, sensors and AI-based video inspection proliferate (