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Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) has released its latest State of Industrial AI Report, highlighting how sectors such as manufacturing, utilities, and transportation are accelerating the deployment of artificial intelligence into real-world operations.
The report is based on a global survey of more than 1,000 operational technology decision-makers across 19 countries and 21 industrial sectors, offering insight into how AI is being adopted as it transitions from experimentation to production environments.
According to the findings, 61 percent of organisations are already using AI in live industrial operations, while 20 percent reported scaled deployments. The use cases span process automation, predictive maintenance, automated quality inspection, logistics, and energy forecasting, with most organisations planning to increase investments in AI.
However, the report notes that as AI moves into production-grade use in physical environments, organisations are facing constraints linked to readiness across networking infrastructure, cybersecurity, and IT and operational technology integration.
“Industrial AI is moving from experimentation into production, where AI systems sense, reason, and act in the real world,” said Vikas Butaney, SVP/GM of Secure Routing and Industrial IoT at Cisco. “At this stage, success is no longer determined by models alone, but by whether networks, security, and teams are ready to support AI at the edge, in motion, and at scale. The research shows that organizations confident in scaling AI are those treating infrastructure, cybersecurity, and IT/OT collaboration as foundational, not optional.”
The report identifies infrastructure readiness as a key factor, with 97 percent of respondents expecting AI workloads to impact industrial network requirements and over half anticipating increased demands for connectivity and reliability. It also found that 96 percent of organisations consider wireless networking essential for enabling AI-driven operations.
Cybersecurity continues to be a major consideration, with 98 percent of respondents stating it is foundational for AI ready infrastructure, while 40 percent cited it as the biggest obstacle to scaling AI deployments. At the same time, 85 percent expect AI to enhance their cybersecurity capabilities.
The study also highlights the role of collaboration between IT and operational technology teams, with 57 percent of organisations reporting some level of alignment, while 43 percent said collaboration remains limited or absent. Nearly half of organisations with limited collaboration reported network instability as a key challenge in scaling AI.
The findings underscore a broader shift as industrial AI adoption moves deeper into core infrastructure, where operational reliability, security, and system integration are emerging as critical factors in determining the pace and scale of deployment.