Explore strategic insights from the Gartner® Manufacturing Predicts 2026.

Key predictions explored in this research:

• By 2029, the adoption of software-defined mechatronic products will reduce the time to market for new features and product variants by 40%, enabling agile responses to market trends and customer feedback.
• By 2030, over 30% of process manufacturers will use product life cycle management (PLM)-based digital threads to manage lab-to-plant transitions and ensure “right first time” regulatory submissions.
• By 2030, semiautonomous AI agents will orchestrate 10% of key production operations, quality and maintenance use cases — up from 2% today — while humans retain final approval.