Agentic AI in Engineering and Manufacturing: Industry Perspectives on Utility, Adoption, Challenges, and Opportunities

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Edwards, Kristen M., Bauer, Maxwell, Jacquillat, Claire, Hart, A. John, Ahmed, Faez
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Edwards, Kristen M.
Bauer, Maxwell
Jacquillat, Claire
Hart, A. John
Ahmed, Faez
author_facet Edwards, Kristen M.
Bauer, Maxwell
Jacquillat, Claire
Hart, A. John
Ahmed, Faez
contents This work examines how AI, especially agentic systems, is being adopted in engineering and manufacturing workflows, what value it provides today, and what is needed for broader deployment. This is an exploratory and qualitative state-of-practice study grounded in over 30 interviews across four stakeholder groups (large enterprises, small/medium firms, AI developers, and CAD/CAM/CAE vendors). We find that near-term AI gains cluster around structured, repetitive work and data-intensive synthesis, while higher-value agentic gains come from orchestrating multi-step workflows across tools. Adoption is constrained less by model capability than by fragmented and machine-unfriendly data, stringent security and regulatory requirements, and limited API-accessible legacy toolchains. Reliability, verification, and auditability are central requirements for adoption, driving human-in-the-loop frameworks and governance aligned with existing engineering reviews. Beyond technical barriers there are also organizational ones: a persistent AI literacy gap, cultural heterogeneity, and governance structures that have not yet caught up with agentic capabilities. Together, the findings point to a staged progression of AI utility from low-consequence assistance toward higher-order automation, as trust, infrastructure, and verification mature. This highlights key breakthroughs needed, including integration with traditional engineering tools and data types, robust verification frameworks, and improved spatial and physical reasoning.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_09633
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Agentic AI in Engineering and Manufacturing: Industry Perspectives on Utility, Adoption, Challenges, and Opportunities
Edwards, Kristen M.
Bauer, Maxwell
Jacquillat, Claire
Hart, A. John
Ahmed, Faez
Computers and Society
Artificial Intelligence
This work examines how AI, especially agentic systems, is being adopted in engineering and manufacturing workflows, what value it provides today, and what is needed for broader deployment. This is an exploratory and qualitative state-of-practice study grounded in over 30 interviews across four stakeholder groups (large enterprises, small/medium firms, AI developers, and CAD/CAM/CAE vendors). We find that near-term AI gains cluster around structured, repetitive work and data-intensive synthesis, while higher-value agentic gains come from orchestrating multi-step workflows across tools. Adoption is constrained less by model capability than by fragmented and machine-unfriendly data, stringent security and regulatory requirements, and limited API-accessible legacy toolchains. Reliability, verification, and auditability are central requirements for adoption, driving human-in-the-loop frameworks and governance aligned with existing engineering reviews. Beyond technical barriers there are also organizational ones: a persistent AI literacy gap, cultural heterogeneity, and governance structures that have not yet caught up with agentic capabilities. Together, the findings point to a staged progression of AI utility from low-consequence assistance toward higher-order automation, as trust, infrastructure, and verification mature. This highlights key breakthroughs needed, including integration with traditional engineering tools and data types, robust verification frameworks, and improved spatial and physical reasoning.
title Agentic AI in Engineering and Manufacturing: Industry Perspectives on Utility, Adoption, Challenges, and Opportunities
topic Computers and Society
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.09633