Data As The Core Investment Priority

Manufacturers worldwide are prioritizing investments in digital capabilities, with a distinct focus on harnessing data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) to drive operational excellence. Deloitte’s 2025 Smart Manufacturing and Operations Survey reports that over 80% of executives see smart manufacturing as pivotal to future growth, with data analytics, cloud computing and AI topping their investment priorities.

Data is the core of AI and smart manufacturing. ARC Advisory Group's latest findings echo this sentiment, emphasizing the emergence of the "industrial data fabric"—a unified, contextualized data infrastructure that leverages data from sensors, machines, enterprise systems and supply chains to power the next wave of industrial AI innovations. This evolution is not just about collecting more data, but about managing, contextualizing and leveraging it to unlock real business value.

Our customers echo this every day—that challenges with data, including data quality, contextualization and validation, are significant obstacles to AI implementation, as reflected by MIT Technology Review.

Data management tools that provide contextualization, governance and accessibility are the backbone of effective AI-driven automation. In summary, an effective data strategy is the underpinning of a successful AI strategy.