The share of industrial manufacturers operating highly automated processes will more than double by decade's end, according to PwC's Global Industrial Manufacturing Sector Outlook 2026, published February 27 - a finding with significant capital expenditure and workforce implications for metalworking and fabrication plants worldwide.
The median share of industrial manufacturers expected to have highly automated processes is set to rise from 18% to 50% by 2030, with leading companies projected to reach 65% automation across key processes. The study surveyed 443 senior executives across 24 territories, positioning the global US$16 trillion industrial manufacturing industry at a historic inflection point as AI and advanced technologies accelerate across the value chain.
Background
The median share of respondents indicating their company's activities rely heavily on advanced technologies is poised to more than double by 2030, rising from 26% to 68%. This trajectory reflects a structural shift already visible on shop floors: manufacturers are moving beyond isolated robotics deployments toward integrated automation spanning physical production, data capture, analytics, and after-sales support.
Business support functions such as finance and human resources - where adoption is currently low - are set to see advanced technology use quadruple by decade's end. For metalworking and fabrication operations, this signals that automation investment will extend well beyond CNC cells and welding robots into enterprise-wide data and process architectures.
A separate Deloitte analysis reinforces the trend: a 2025 survey of 600 manufacturing executives found that 80% plan to invest 20% or more of their improvement budgets in smart manufacturing initiatives, focusing on automation hardware, data analytics, sensors, and cloud computing.
Key Details
PwC's data reveals a widening competitive divide. The firm identifies "future-fit" industrial manufacturers - the top 20% of companies in its survey - as holding a clear edge: 29% of those companies currently operate highly automated processes, compared with just 15% of other manufacturers. By 2030, that share is expected to reach 65% for future-fit companies versus 45% for the rest.
Strategic intent behind automation investment differs by technology type. According to PwC, AI is expected to contribute roughly equally to growth and productivity - cited by 47% and 46% of respondents respectively - while robotics is viewed primarily as a productivity tool, cited by 78% of respondents for that purpose versus 13% for growth. For fabricators evaluating capital allocation, this distinction matters: robotic welding, material handling, and press-brake automation investments are productivity plays, while AI-driven analytics and connected systems carry broader strategic upside.
In value-chain deployment, production and operations will lead adoption, with heavy use of advanced technology expected to reach 76% of respondents by 2030, up from 29% today, while product design and development will reach 72%, up from 37%.
Ryan Hawk, Global Industrials and Services Leader at PwC US, identified execution capability as the differentiating factor. "The question is no longer whether companies will adopt new technologies, but how fast they can integrate them," Hawk said. "As automation becomes ubiquitous, the advantage shifts from who has tools to who can orchestrate them across the enterprise."
Future-fit companies are more likely to report that their workforce is empowered to act on new ideas (74% versus 59%), to tolerate strategic risk-taking (69% versus 36%), and to use data-driven decision-making (75% versus 47%).
On workforce readiness, 70% of manufacturers say developing capabilities internally is their top approach to accessing growth opportunities, yet many risk underinvesting in reskilling and digital infrastructure. More than a third of the 600 manufacturing executives surveyed by Deloitte in 2025 identified equipping workers with the skills needed to maximize smart manufacturing potential as their top concern.
The PwC report also identifies a shift in revenue models. More than two-fifths of total manufacturer revenue - 44% - is projected to come from outside the manufacturing of industrial and consumer products by 2030, as companies shift toward bundled offerings combining equipment, services, and intelligent connected solutions.
Outlook
PwC identifies workforce reskilling and digital data infrastructure as essential capabilities critical for financial performance that risk going underdeveloped. Future-fit companies already hold a commanding lead; for others, closing capability gaps will be essential to avoid falling further behind as those advantages compound.
For plant managers and process engineers, the report's timeline is unambiguous: manufacturers expect tech enablement and automation levels to more than double by 2030, even as blind spots in skills, data infrastructure, and other areas threaten progress. Capital allocation decisions made in the next 12 to 24 months - covering robotics integration, interoperability standards, and workforce development - will determine which operations can compete in an increasingly automated supply chain.
For a detailed analysis of how this forecast affects ROI planning, skills strategies, and digital transformation roadmaps in metalworking specifically, see our in-depth feature: Automation Will Double by 2030: What PwC's Forecast Means for ROI, Skills, and Policy in Metalworking.
