The future of industrial products: PwC

US industrials and energy leaders are on the clock to shape a new golden age

The business of America is business — entrepreneurial, risk-ready and opportunity-driven. When industry seizes not just one innovation but dozens and fuses them together, the result isn’t transformation. It’s creation.

That’s what’s happening now. US industrials and energy leaders, including manufacturers, power providers and utilities, are building something new: a self-healing, intelligent enterprise powered by AI, automation and data. This isn’t a patchwork of upgrades. It’s a paradigm shift that could reposition America at the center of global industrial leadership.

America’s industrial strength is already backed by hard metrics. Take manufacturing. In 2024, US manufacturers contributed $2.91 trillion to the economy — more than the GDP of entire countries like France or the UK. If it stood alone, the US manufacturing sector would rank as the eighth-largest economy in the world.¹ That’s just one pillar. Add in energy and utilities powering this transformation and the scale of reinvention is even greater. This isn’t recovery, it’s reinvention at scale, positioning the US firmly at the center of global industry — and the next wave of innovation.

In this future, chips are the new oil. Data centers are the new factories. And by 2035, intelligent, autonomous systems could redefine the sector. Industrials and energy leaders sense a revolution, yet many companies aren’t moving fast enough. The window is open, but not forever.

In PwC’s new Future of Industrials Survey of 500+ industrials and energy C-suite leaders, 93% say we’re on the brink of the next industrial revolution. Political winds may change, but this movement won’t. The convergence of pandemic-era supply chain failures, geopolitical conflicts and automation breakthroughs has locked in a long-term industrial reset. Tariffs are simply one tool. The deeper commitment is to prosperity and security through making critical goods at home.

Unlike prior eras of industrial change, this one isn’t about technology alone. It’s about strategic reinvention — evolving the broader US economic system with innovation, resilience, sovereignty and national ambition at the center.

_{^[1] National Association of Manufacturers, Facts About Manufacturing, May 2025, https://nam.org/mfgdata/facts-about-manufacturing-expanded.}

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The future of energy and manufacturing

93%

of industrials and energy leaders say we are on the brink of the next industrial revolution

Stronger, smarter, sovereign

American industrials and energy players are aligning innovation, policy and ambition

The industrials and energy sectors are standing at a crossroads, and executives are already signaling where they expect the most reinvention by 2030. This is not a moment for cautious adaptation. It is a call for transformation across core systems, from supply chains and intelligent manufacturing to data integration and regulatory agility. Roughly three out of four (73%) executives believe that companies failing to embrace industrial realignment will be irrelevant within a decade. That's not hyperbole. It's the new reality for leaders facing seismic shifts in technology, policy and global competitiveness.

The bar is higher than ever. Most industrials and energy executives (95%) say organizations need to focus on redefining their market approach rather than simply adapting to current conditions. And they’re betting big. Ninety-two percent believe the industrial sector will progress faster than the technology sector in the next five years. That level of confidence is fueling the momentum behind this new wave of reinvention. This isn't about incremental improvement. It's about seizing the opportunity to rethink everything, including business models, supply networks, production ecosystems and customer engagement strategies.

What's changing? Industrials and energy leaders are reimagining core operations around six nonnegotiables, unified by the digital thread that connects design, production and operations to drive both performance and strength. These include supply chain resiliency; manufacturing modularity, self-healing manufacturing processes that automatically detect and repair errors without human intervention; energy independence; AI-enabled intelligent systems; autonomous operations driven by robotics; and agility in adapting to regulation.

What’s changing? Industrial leaders are reimagining core operations around six nonnegotiables

Factor 1 Reshoring manufacturing isn’t a tactic. It’s the new industrial mission.

Why building a resilient supply chain is a matter of economic survival

America’s industrial revival starts with bringing strategic elements of production home. Ninety percent of leaders surveyed tell us that companies relying on distant suppliers in 2030 “will be extinct by 2035.” Automation has lowered the cost of reshoring, tariffs may be driving it and US tax policy is incentivizing it. Executives overwhelmingly agree (92%) that advanced automation technologies makes onshoring more viable. Nearly a third (32%) say they’re pursuing strategic or aggressive reshoring now.

While the obstacles to reshoring are significant, local production promises better quality control and speed to market — something that’s ever more important in meeting the high demands of today’s consumer. Perhaps most importantly, reshoring encourages infrastructure investment, which has a multiplying effect across sectors and across the economy.

The implications are clear. Resilient supply chains are no longer just about efficiency. They’re about sovereignty.

More than a third of the executives (34%) we surveyed say they expect most (51% or more) production to be reshored or nearshored by 2030. To do this, companies will need to address high capital costs and lead times for regionalizing production as well as talent shortages in key US industrial hubs. Leaders will need to focus on integrating global networks with local ones into a single responsive system while updating legacy supply chain systems that lack real-time visibility. They’ll also want to consider their capital strategy and whether to use nontraditional financing sources.

Step back and take a fresh, end-to-end look at your business. Question long-standing assumptions that may no longer make sense, like 12-month payback expectations or supplier co-location across tiers. Be strategic in redesigning your value network. Take stock of your differentiated capabilities and make thoughtful make / buy decisions.
Invest in manufacturing automation and the talent you need to make reshoring affordable. Prioritize both next-gen expertise (automation, simulation, digital factories) and critical trades. Consider AI-enabled supply chain control towers and digital factories to boost visibility and enable predictive risk mitigation.
Use end-to-end supply chain network analysis that weighs tax, proximity, labor and market access to target the most strategic reshoring opportunities by product line or region, while keeping sight of how US moves affect global reach. Design new operations with lean, agile and resilient principles from the start rather than retrofitting them later.
Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and large companies should think about how to create clusters to maximize economics and speed. Strengthen regional supplier relationships, invest in supplier development capabilities and co-locate logistics, engineering and leadership talent near new manufacturing nodes. Reinforce key customer relationships to lock in utilization of new capacity and protect against churn.
Stack incentives to bolster the business case. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act offers tax incentives tied to capital expenditures and research and development. Look into provisions across federal, state and local levels and explore foreign partners grants that encourage US investment.

Factor 2 Modular manufacturing is rising, and it’s self-healing

Welcome to factories that fix themselves, powered by predictive maintenance

Forget static assembly lines. Modular systems, built on plug-and-play platforms that flex with demand, are becoming the new industrial architecture. Five years from now (2030), nearly half of industrials and energy executives (49%) expect their operations to be fully modular, up from just 6% that consider themselves fully modular today.

This shift is already reshaping capital priorities. Industrials and energy leaders are investing in plug-and-play agility, with 52% focusing on flexible production line reconfiguration that adapts to changing products and demand patterns. Another 46% are backing standardized production modules that use interchangeable equipment components. These design strategies are enabling faster, more responsive manufacturing environments that can scale or pivot as needed.

But it doesn’t stop at agility. Executives are backing self-healing supply chains: systems that automatically detect, diagnose and correct disruptions. They’re investing in predictive equipment maintenance (43%), intelligent workforce reallocation (38%), adaptive production scheduling powered by AI (33%) and digital twin simulation and correction (30%).

These technologies are helping to hardwire resilience into operations and reduce the risk of costly downtime. Still, most companies are only beginning to scratch the surface. Without broader implementation, these innovations risk remaining isolated upgrades rather than sector-wide breakthroughs. The opportunity is massive, but so is the risk of falling behind.

By 2030, more than one-third of industrials and energy executives envision most of their supply chains will be modular or self-healing. To realize the full potential of this evolution, more companies will need to decide where that modularity takes hold: in greenfield builds that start from a clean slate, or in brownfield assets where legacy operations must be reconfigured without disrupting production. Both paths will shape the future. Greenfield projects can showcase the full promise of plug-and-play agility, while brownfield retrofits will determine whether modularity can scale broadly across the industrial base. Either way, cross-functional planning between operations and engineering will be essential, particularly to prevent siloed investments in automation and IT infrastructure. Companies also will need to recruit and train people to implement such self-healing capabilities as predictive maintenance and digital twins.

Develop a strategy to pursue modularity, paying careful attention to the role of product design. Collaborate with others within the ecosystem to support modularity design and manufacturing in a more efficient and scalable way.
Prioritize modular upgrades in high-variance product lines where flexibility can yield the greatest return on investment.
Build integrated project teams from design, manufacturing, engineering and IT to scale systems that reconfigure and recover in real time.
Leverage existing automation platforms and sensors as a foundation for predictive analytics and digital twin integration.

Factor 3 From gridlocked to grid-smart: The race for energy resilience

Why industrials and energy must decentralize, decarbonize and take control

Only 38% of leaders surveyed believe their current energy infrastructure can meet evolving needs over the next five years. But change is coming fast. Eighty percent plan to increase investment in energy resilience within three years — and not just for sustainability reasons.

According to 94% of leaders surveyed, this push is about operational control and improving organizational resilience. As customer demand becomes more complex and diverse, both established players and new entrants will collaborate and compete to provide power. The winners will be those who can use real-time data insights to develop innovative solutions that generate new business.

In the near term, gas will be key, and nuclear power will grow in importance as the promise of small, nuclear reactors is realized. Eventually, hydrogen, biofuels and synthetic compounds may power the future as climate change continues to spur technological innovation to lower carbon emissions. Batteries and other storage technologies could offer compelling solutions to the intermittent availability of wind and solar power, allowing energy providers to better match supply and demand. But the timeline for green energy is longer and the country is in an international energy race. Growing capacity is a competitive advantage.

Sovereign energy is key for sovereign industry.

Only about a third (34%) of leaders expect most of their production will be energy independent by 2030 — and that’s more than double the percentage who are energy independent today. For the rest, sourcing power will be a key issue, given aging infrastructure, high upfront investment costs in renewable generation and storage as well as uncertainty around energy ROI and cost predictability. All of this, along with long regulatory approval cycles, will demand careful coordination across utilities, industrials and policymakers.

Start with dual-use energy pilots — solar and storage, for example — to support resilience and improve ROI.
Engage early with regulators and utilities to streamline interconnection and incentive access.
Consider energy-as-a-service models to share the investment burden with providers.

Factor 4 AI in manufacturing takes the wheel

Intelligent systems as industrial backbone

AI is no longer just an experiment in manufacturing, it’s becoming the backbone of industrial competitiveness. Eighty-one percent of the executives surveyed tell us they plan to increase AI investments in the next three years, and 93% say America’s industrial advantage will be built on intelligent systems.

But the growth story is uneven. High-growth companies — defined as those that have experienced significant revenue growth (10%+) over the last two years — are pulling ahead, investing in technology faster than their peers. They’re concentrating their resources on areas that scale intelligence across the enterprise and hardwire resilience into operations with a greater focus on cloud-based analytics, supply chain data visibility and predictive capabilities as the breakthrough most likely to transform their industry. They also place higher priority on scalable, flexible IT architecture that enables decentralization.

The gaps are consistent. High-growth companies are between eight and 17 percentage points more likely than peers to prioritize these investments. For them, intelligent systems are not optional but foundational to the future industrial advantage.

The future factory will be smart, sensor-rich and AI-driven, but the path is far from guaranteed. When asked about their 2030 vision, only 44% of executives say they plan to convert more than 60% of their operations to intelligent systems. At the same time, around one in four (26%) believe the most likely outcome is that technology will outpace infrastructure, creating deployment gaps that could slow transformation. To bridge this divide, leaders must focus on fundamentals like better data, tighter tech integration and infrastructure that can handle real-time demands. They also need a workforce that’s AI-fluent and ready to adapt. And above all, they need to bake in trust, with governance that makes AI explainable, secure and ready for prime time.

Orchestrate an ecosystem of AI agents working alongside humans and across the enterprise to unlock value.
Focus AI deployment on high-value use cases, such as predictive maintenance, quality improvements and asset optimization / scheduling.
Build an industrial data fabric that connects assets, sensors and enterprise systems. Take a base-plus approach. Establish a platform for foundational control and visibility, then layer in AI, analytics and workflows rather than relying solely on enterprise vendor solutions.
Balance your expectations of AI by using it to equip your workforce with insights and data, not just to automate tasks.
Develop AI initiatives within a Responsible AI framework for sound governance, compliance and cybersecurity.

Factor 5 Smart manufacturing meets the AI-native workforce

Why robotics in manufacturing is augmenting — not replacing — the human edge

Industrials and energy leaders are not bracing for AI to take jobs away. They are preparing to use it to make jobs better. Only 6% expect a future with limited AI use for specialized tasks only. The rest are building toward a workplace where most roles are AI-augmented, decision-making is sharper and routine work is handled automatically.

Nine in 10 executives say AI is prompting a fundamental rethink of job roles in their sector. That means redefining what those jobs are, the skills required to perform them and the way work is organized.

Preparing employees for this shift has become the top workforce development priority. It is a re-skilling imperative and a race to build AI fluency into every role so that humans and AI can work in step.

Eighty-one percent of leaders plan to increase investment in robotics. Working alongside robots that are safer, smarter and more affordable than ever, the modern industrial worker will be skilled, AI-native and internationally competitive.

Our survey suggests that industry leaders may not be moving fast enough. By 2030, about half (52%) imagine that AI will have taken root within the workforce. Nineteen percent envision a future where every role is amplified or optimized by AI and 33% think most roles will be enhanced with intelligent tools and AI augmentation. But to achieve this, leaders will need to address the current shortage of automation engineers and plan carefully for change management as roles shift. They’ll also need to consider high integration costs across legacy production systems and address relevant safety concerns and compliance requirements in regulated sectors.

Start with hybrid autonomy in repetitive or high-risk workflows and scale from there.
Invest in workforce transformation alongside robotics deployment.
Choose automation purposefully by targeting clear SQDC use cases in safety, quality, delivery and cost, and use simulation and digital twins to validate robotic workflows and build confidence across teams.

Factor 6 Regulatory foresight becomes your next strategic advantage

Why compliance is the new competitive edge

Industrial leaders talk a big game about foresight. Almost all (93%) agree or strongly agree that anticipating regulatory changes can turn compliance into competitive opportunities. Yet when asked to choose the top areas where AI will transform their industry, fewer than one out of five (19%) put regulatory monitoring on the list. Strategy modeling, product design and supply chain optimization won out. That gap exposes a mismatch between what leaders say and what they actually do. They may prize foresight, but they’re not ranking the tools that would deliver it.

Instead, most compliance activity remains defensive — monitoring agencies and publications, attending conferences and training programs, using external counsel. These steps are necessary, but they keep companies in reaction mode at a time when rules are being drafted, revised and enforced at unprecedented speed. Lobbying and comment letters may still be part of the proactive playbook, but they’re not enough to stay ahead.

The frontier is no longer about meeting requirements after the fact. It’s about building systems that see what’s coming and respond in real time. Leaders who digitize foresight with AI, embed compliance monitoring into core transactions and scale scarce expertise through managed services will shift compliance from overhead to advantage, turning regulatory pressure into operational intelligence and strategic edge.

Automate your radar. Invest in AI-driven tools that replace manual regulatory tracking.
Embed controls into workflows. Integrate real-time compliance into your core systems so new-law risks are caught the moment they arise.
Tap flexible capacity. Use managed services to fill skill gaps and scale capabilities efficiently.
Utilize insights gained from compliance data. Cut costs, strengthen resilience and shape strategic decisions.

Building 2035 together

Convergence as a catalyst for a new industrial revolution

Industrials and energy leaders overwhelmingly agree that the biggest value creation opportunities lie at the intersection of sectors. And convergence is accelerating.

64% expect meaningful convergence within five years.

94% agree the lines between sectors are blurring fast.

95% believe the most successful companies will create new cross-sector categories.

Strategic, cross-sector collaborations are leading the way — from tech alliances in aerospace to customer co-development in energy. Executives are betting that platform thinking, cross-pollinated ecosystems and hybrid business models will be the keys to growth. Convergence is reaching beyond industrials and energy, influencing healthcare, consumer and other sectors as policy, resilience and new capabilities reshape global strategies.

As industries converge, whoever owns the intersection owns the advantage.

A vision for 2035 begins to come into focus. The next phase of industrial development — driven by innovation, resilience and national ambition — has ushered in a new era of American ingenuity. It’s an era defined by onshore, autonomous factories, powered by robotics and optimized with AI. Energy is local, sovereign and resilient. Supply chain disruptions are minimal, because they’re onshore, digitized and self-healing. Manufacturing is modular — tailored locally and scaled globally. Meanwhile, AI-enabled workers lead globally, from anywhere.

This strategic change is already underway. Whoever masters it can master the future.

In Q3 2025, PwC commissioned a survey of 508 C-suite leaders from US-headquartered companies in the industrials and energy sectors — including aerospace and defense, automotive, chemicals, engineering and construction, industrial manufacturing, oil and gas, and utilities. All participating companies reported annual revenues above $500 million. The aggregated results provide the insights and themes that underpin the recommendations here.