54% of Indian manufacturing firms have adopted AI and analytics: Report

New Delhi, June 21 (KNN) India’s manufacturing sector is witnessing an upward trend towards adopting analytics and AI with a current implementation rate of 54 per cent, according to a report by PwC.

In a survey, titled Reimagining Digital Factories of Tomorrow, the PwC India underscored that manufacturing companies currently prefer to adopt one standardised digital solution across plants.

Domestic firms majorly focus more on people, policies, and mind-set while global companies prefer building up systems for driving any transformation, the survey said.

However, 38 per cent of the Indian companies that participated in the survey revealed that they do not have any plans to adopt digital technology for their businesses.

As per the report, a majority of Indian manufacturing firms are following the global trend of implementing advanced technology solutions such as additive manufacturing, analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR)/ virtual reality (VR), and smart devices.

The survey highlighted that every company is at a different stage of evolution in its digital transformation journey. For instance, industrial manufacturing, hi-tech and electronics, and pharma and MedTech have seen a bigger change in adopting digital technology.

It points out that the innovation rate and TTM strategy are gaining significant prominence with an expected growth of 38 per cent in Indian companies, while the cost leadership and efficiency improvement approach is declining with an expected drop of 11 per cent.

The technology adoption rate in India is promising. According to the survey, more than 50 per cent of the Indian digital champions have implemented technology across industries. In India, additive manufacturing industries are where technology has been adopted the most with an adoption rate of around 55 per cent.

Sudipta Ghosh, Partner, Industrial Products Sector and Data and Analytics Practice Leader, PwC India, said, “This is a very interesting time for organisations, especially in India, who have embarked upon the digitisation journey. Organisations are focusing on improving the efficiency of processes, such as reducing the downtime of assets, minimising the maintenance cost of expensive equipment, cutting down the cost of poor quality by understanding the parameters needed for the golden batch using digital twins, automation of processes.”  (KNN Bureau)