The study did find, however, that those who have adopted AI are more likely to achieve increased revenue, profitability and competitiveness for their employers.
The study – The State of AI in Engineering – surveyed 163 senior engineering leaders at multinational automotive, aerospace and industrial/manufacturing enterprises in the US and Europe.
Said to be the first of its kind to look at engineering product development it has shed light on the challenges and key priorities that engineering leaders face in the validation and verification stage of the development workflow – and how intelligent AI solutions can support them achieving better results, faster.
“The perfect storm is brewing in engineering as market trends around sustainability and digitalisation are creating even more intractable physics problems that current validation and testing methods are unable to solve," explained Dr. Richard Ahlfeld, CEO and founder of Monolith. "As data from this study shows, engineering leaders are at a fork in the road to innovate in new ways as pressure to stay profitable and competitive rises."
The report found that engineers are feeling the pressure to introduce products to market faster, with 71% of surveyed engineering leaders indicating that they need to find ways to accelerate product development to stay competitive.
Worryingly, many engineering leaders feel unequipped to effect change, with more than half (55%) of those surveyed stating that they lack the required tools, and that existing virtual validation and simulation tools are insufficient.
The impact of these deficiencies on business success is clear, with 82% of respondents noting that a one-month delay in product launch costs their business millions, or even billions, of dollars.
While existing physical testing and simulation methods fall short in meeting engineers’ needs for product designs to pass validation, industry leaders see AI as crucial in empowering their efforts in producing highly effective solutions for the market and in delivering commercial success.
According to the research, engineering leaders who have already implemented AI are 43% more likely to see an increase in revenue, profitability, and competitiveness compared to those who haven’t.
Despite the power of AI to produce meaningful results for businesses in the engineering sector, many engineering organisations are missing out on the full potential of advanced AI technology; less than 19% of engineering leaders reported using unsupervised learning algorithms to analyse historic or current test data, and less than half utilise any of their engineering test data.
Dr. Ahlfeld said that with AI, engineering domain experts would be able to quickly understand and instantly predict complex physics, allowing them to test less, learn more and get to market much quicker.
“The new insights we have uncovered via the Forrester study underline just how crucial the widespread implementation of technologies such as AI has become. The industry now needs to take the necessary steps to prepare itself for a data-driven future,” he concluded
Key findings:
- Independent research firm Forrester surveyed 163 engineering leaders at US and European automotive, aerospace and industrial/manufacturing enterprises for their views on artificial intelligence (AI)
- 67% feel pressure to adopt AI to avoid losing competitive advantage
- Companies already implementing AI technology are 43% more likely to see an increase in revenue, profitability and competitiveness compared to those who haven’t
- Over 70% report pressure to get products to market faster, while more than half (55%) say physical simulation and CFD fall short
- Over 80% report that product delays cost $millions to $billions in lost revenue
- Engineering data is being ignored, with half surveyed currently not analysing or using any of their engineering test data
The full findings of the Forrester study can be downloaded using the link below.
