80% of U.S. Factories Still Run Without Automation

Four out of five U.S. manufacturing facilities currently operate without any automation, according to Intrinsic Chief Technology Officer Brian Gerkey. The statistic underscores a widening gap between industry rhetoric around AI and robotics investment and the operational reality on most factory floors.

The disconnect is not about awareness or intent. Deloitte's 2025 Smart Manufacturing and Operations Survey found that 92% of manufacturers believe smart manufacturing will be the primary driver of competitiveness over the next three years. Yet only a small fraction report AI deployed widely across their operations. Jeff Burnstein, president of the Association for Advancing Automation, notes that while interest is uniformly high, execution consistently breaks down.

Why it matters

The automation gap is colliding with intensifying workforce constraints. As aging populations and slowing workforce growth reduce the available pool of qualified operators and technicians, manufacturers face a compounding operational challenge. Companies that frame automation as a revenue-generation tool rather than a cost-reduction play are finding faster internal approval, according to executives leading the transition.

Labor pressure reframes the automation case

Honeywell CEO Vimal Kapur told CNBC in June that customers across hospitals, airports, data centers, semiconductor facilities, and LNG plants are struggling to find qualified operators. "Net workforce is not going to be increasing. It's going to be decreasing over a period of time," Kapur said.

Kapur's response centers on redefining automation's purpose. Rather than positioning AI-enabled systems as headcount replacement, Honeywell customers are treating them as revenue-generation tools. That shift has direct implications for how procurement and operations teams should structure business cases internally.

Honeywell completed the spinoff of its aerospace division on June 29, leaving a pure-play automation business spanning sensors, controls, and software. Kapur emphasized that the company's competitive advantage lies in domain expertise and operational data already flowing through installed systems, which AI can now convert into optimization decisions that previously required human judgment.

New product launches lower entry barriers

Historically, automation investments required significant infrastructure commitment. A cluster of late June product launches is changing that calculus at the device and software layer.

ABB introduced its Ability Field Information Manager 3.5 platform, a vendor-neutral system designed to automate bulk firmware updates and manage mixed fleets of field devices across multiple manufacturers. For operations teams running heterogeneous environments, managing multi-vendor device fleets through a single platform reduces one of the persistent friction points: the cost and complexity of managing legacy equipment alongside newer systems.

Sonair announced the ADAR One, which the company describes as the world's first safety-certified 3D ultrasonic sensor. The device has achieved SIL2 and PL d ratings and meets European Machine Directive requirements for detecting humans and objects. That certification matters operationally: SIL2 and PL d compliance is the bar for deploying sensors in proximity to human workers in regulated environments, and 3D ultrasonic technology has not previously cleared it.

Contrinex is expanding in the sensing space with miniaturized smart measurement sensors and 3D vision systems aimed at real-time monitoring applications. Compact form factors open automation options in environments where space constraints previously ruled out sensor deployment.

Control software consolidates

Below the device level, the control software tier is also evolving. Congatec and CODESYS announced a partnership combining congatec's hypervisor technology with CODESYS control software to create virtualized real-time control platforms for mixed-critical industrial workloads. Virtualizing real-time control functions on shared hardware represents a meaningful architectural shift for facilities trying to consolidate operational technology infrastructure without sacrificing determinism.

Watlow introduced an edge process management platform built for regulated thermal manufacturing environments, targeting the challenge of maintaining precise process data and secure digital records across temperature-driven operations. Regulatory compliance documentation has been a persistent manual burden in pharmaceutical, food, and specialty chemical manufacturing.

These details were first reported by MarketScale.