AI, climate change and geopolitical shifts are reconfiguring the global economy. We’ve mapped where value is moving over the next decade, so you can build a future-ready business to capture it.
Creating new customer needs and preferences. Forging new markets. Enabling new business models. Attracting new competitors. And blurring the boundaries of sectors and industries.
It’s time to look for growth in new places.
It’s time to explore new domains of growth—markets where companies work across sector boundaries to meet fundamental human needs. Like how we feed and care for ourselves, move, make and build things, and how we fuel and power it all.
Scroll on to understand how these domains will form and grow. And discover how to seize your share of the value in motion.
To see which domains hold opportunity for you, select your industry/sector and region, or click on the graphic below.
Tap an industry and swipe left on the chart below to see how it will transform into a domain.
Source: PwC research and analysis
Select from the nine domains below to learn how they are forming, the size of the opportunity and how to seize the value in motion.
To meet the world’s need for materials and industrial goods, manufacturing must reinvent itself through innovation, digitisation and automation.
In the Fourth Industrial Revolution, manufacturers are a beacon of innovation—embracing the use of new technologies such as automation, 3D printing and AI to boost their productivity, efficiency and agility. Companies are already using these advances to reinvent themselves. As a result of these efforts, up to US$1.8 trillion of manufacturing revenues could be redistributed in 2025.
Other powerful catalysts include the need to insulate supply chains from climate shocks, the push to improve sustainability and circularity, the growing demand for workers with specialised skills, and the impact of geopolitical tensions on trade routes. Together, they’re combining to forge a major sectoral reconfiguration in manufacturing.
The Make domain will be a more diverse, tech-enabled zone in which firms integrate their capabilities and knowledge to create offerings that better meet customers’ increasingly complex needs. The new cast of players: classic manufacturers, along with IOT providers, AI firms, cybersecurity specialists and robotics companies.
Cross-sector collaboration has already helped companies develop elegant, multifaceted solutions. Aerospace companies boost aircraft and engine uptime by combining remote monitoring, predictive analytics, coordinated inventory management and automated maintenance scheduling. In other instances, customers pay for a function like energy generation, heating or filtration, while the company owns and manages the equipment, enhancing efficiency with the IOT and advanced analytics.
Companies will find growth opportunities by looking across traditional sectors and recognising distinct areas of customer need, such as raw materials, manufacturing data, climate solutions and materials science. By 2035, the Make domain could contribute $34.17 trillion to global GDP, representing about a quarter of total output.
To obtain a quantitative picture of what the Make domain might look like in 2035, we modelled the potential global economic impact of two of the most pressing megatrends: technological disruption (specifically disruption from AI) and climate change. The result is three divergent scenarios, corresponding to a range of outcomes, from a low of $33.91 trillion to a high of $36.84 trillion.
In the Fourth Industrial Revolution, manufacturers are a beacon of innovation—embracing the use of new technologies such as automation, 3D printing and AI to boost their productivity, efficiency and agility. Companies are already using these advances to reinvent themselves. As a result of these efforts, up to US$1.8 trillion of manufacturing revenues could be redistributed in 2025.
Other powerful catalysts include the need to insulate supply chains from climate shocks, the push to improve sustainability and circularity, the growing demand for workers with specialised skills, and the impact of geopolitical tensions on trade routes. Together, they’re combining to forge a major sectoral reconfiguration in manufacturing.
The Make domain will be a more diverse, tech-enabled zone in which firms integrate their capabilities and knowledge to create offerings that better meet customers’ increasingly complex needs. The new cast of players: classic manufacturers, along with IOT providers, AI firms, cybersecurity specialists and robotics companies.
Cross-sector collaboration has already helped companies develop elegant, multifaceted solutions. Aerospace companies boost aircraft and engine uptime by combining remote monitoring, predictive analytics, coordinated inventory management and automated maintenance scheduling. In other instances, customers pay for a function like energy generation, heating or filtration, while the company owns and manages the equipment, enhancing efficiency with the IOT and advanced analytics.
Companies will find growth opportunities by looking across traditional sectors and recognising distinct areas of customer need, such as raw materials, manufacturing data, climate solutions and materials science. By 2035, the Make domain could contribute $34.17 trillion to global GDP, representing about a quarter of total output.
To obtain a quantitative picture of what the Make domain might look like in 2035, we modelled the potential global economic impact of two of the most pressing megatrends: technological disruption (specifically disruption from AI) and climate change. The result is three divergent scenarios, corresponding to a range of outcomes, from a low of $33.91 trillion to a high of $36.84 trillion.
Businesses that grasp the full potential of the Make domain will have the edge in 2035.
The nature and scale of the new business opportunities that emerge in the Make domain will depend on how AI adoption and climate action progress. Your strategy should account for a range of possible outcomes.
Three scenarios can help leaders in the Make domain consider what the future might bring.
In Trust-Based Transformation, a coordinated, conscientious approach to tech deployment and climate response fosters productivity growth, job creation and environmental health.
In Tense Transition, regionalisation and nationalism give rise to technology systems and sustainability efforts that deliver benefits without the economies of global scale.
In Turbulent Times, atomised interests, divisive uses of technology, and suspended sustainability initiatives hamper economic growth.
Learn more about the three divergent tomorrows.
Global baseline 2035
Source: PwC research and analysis
Select a bar below to see projected values and how each scenario might influence the Make domain.
Source: PwC research and analysis
Demand for goods and equipment that cause minimal harm to the environment—along with strict environmental regulations—encourages businesses to embrace sustainable sourcing and production practices. Waste reduction and resource circularity become governing concepts for successful manufacturing firms. Technology firms develop AI and data-security tools to promote transparency and efficiency along value chains.
Select a bar below to see projected values and how each scenario might influence the Make domain.
The projected growth of the Make domain varies greatly, not just across future scenarios but among regions and territories, too. Knowing where opportunities are likely to emerge—and where they might be overlooked—can help companies target geographies, design offerings and retool their business models.
Global value
Source: PwC research and analysis
Regional clusters depicted above are based on IIASA research data and ISO mapping and do not represent the structure of the PwC network or where PwC member firms are incorporated and operate.
In a future of divergent possibilities, imagining new ways to create value can help reframe how we think about viable business models, products and services.
Regardless of the scenario, leaders can act now to ensure they succeed in the decade ahead.
Fast-forward a decade. What sorts of innovative offerings might generate outsize value for companies in the Make domain? To help leaders expand their thinking, we’ve imagined hypothetical businesses in the context of the three scenarios.
International renewable energy standards, cross-border energy and carbon trading, and widespread trust in sharing data create an opening for a provider of turnkey clean energy services to global manufacturers. Instead of charging for energy by the unit, the company collects payment for delivering precisely enough power to keep customers’ facilities running in a cost-effective way—giving all parties an incentive to maximise efficiency. The approach begins with analysing each manufacturer’s energy needs and cutting demand through equipment tweaks or upgrades. Next, the service provider builds onsite facilities for renewable electricity generation and storage, and configures the system to source or provide carbon-free grid power as market prices fluctuate. Additional revenues come from carbon credits earned as the system runs.
Who’s got the edge?
Future growth area
Developing solutions to electrify and decarbonise hard-to-abate sectors like concrete and steel
These quick-hit concepts—some of them suited for just one future scenario, others for more—offer additional inspiration for business model innovation.
Closed-loop materials formulated for maximum recoverability and reuse
Cybersecurity for IOT devices and software
Seamless aggregation and sharing of manufacturing data
Least-cost, lightweight materials derived from waste
Manager of regional manufacturing networks that streamline distribution and withstand disruption
AI-driven, robot-equipped warehousing systems
The process of reinvention needs to start now, with a focus on priorities that respond to the reconfiguration that’s already underway. This means driving hard towards a set of innovation imperatives, securing competitive advantages in areas such as technology and trust, and turning obstacles such as climate threats into enablers of growth.
How to win in the Make domain
Today’s manufacturing sector is making impressive advances in automation and digitisation. Many players in the Make domain are already well-equipped to initiate the critical changes to their operating and business models that will help their organisation withstand—and leverage—sudden market shifts, unstable supply chains and resource scarcity. Here are a few key areas of innovation to target.
Artificial intelligence
The applications of this fast-evolving set of technologies have huge transformative potential for the Make domain. AI-enabled flexible manufacturing systems, supported by advanced robotics and automation, can drive mass personalisation and customisation. AI can also be used to optimise workflows for maximum efficiency and to manage plant maintenance.
Supply chain
Investing in real-time supply chain tracking and enhanced traceability, and in smart adaptive logistics, can yield substantial cost savings and efficiency gains, freeing resources for reinvention moves. Micromobility solutions can help streamline last-mile delivery.
Energy use
Electric trucks, green roofs, solar panels, optimised building insulation, natural lighting—these are relatively straightforward investments that can also deliver significant savings.
Advanced digitisation and next-gen production
Digital-twin technology and predictive analytics can radically accelerate R&D efforts—a potential advantage when piloting a new business concept. And on-demand 3D printing of complex parts can reduce third-party dependency and insulate against supply chain disruptions.
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