If artificial intelligence has ever felt abstract, its latest proving ground is anything but conceptual. AI-powered factory operations has emerged as more than just a tool – it signals a structural shift in how manufacturers create value.

The industry is at an inflection point as digital labor, agentic systems and adaptive architectures converge to break long-standing productivity bottlenecks. The attitude going into the QAD Inc.’s Champions of Manufacturing event was clear: this is not just an evolution of tools, but a redefinition of human–machine collaboration, according to Scott Hebner, principal analyst at theCUBE Research.

Paul Gillin and Scott Hebner discuss takeaways and trends in a keynote analysis at QAD Champions of Manufacturing 2025.

“We recently ran an agentic AI futures index survey, and in manufacturing companies, 61% of them saw digital labor as inevitable – as a way to give their workers new superpowers,” Hebner said. “Not to replace them, but to give them new superpowers to do more.”

Hebner and Paul Gillin, enterprise editor at SiliconANGLE, hosted a keynote analysis at the QAD Champions of Manufacturing event, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the current state of the industry and how AI-powered factory operations seeks to redefine the manufacturing sector. (* Disclosure below.)

AI-powered factory operations come at a critical time

Legacy rigidity, slow enterprise resource planning cycles and limited decision intelligence have historically constrained manufacturers, no more apparent than in recent supply chain failures. The shift to modernize is both technological and economic, impacting manufacturing as a whole  — a sector infamous for razor-thin profits, Gillin noted.

“Manufacturing is a low-margin business. In most cases, downtime is unacceptable,” he said. “The cost is measured in millions of dollars per hour.”

Against that backdrop, the keynote pushed back on outdated stereotypes about factory work, arguing that the true leverage in modern manufacturing lies far beyond the traditional assembly line. With automation and offshoring reshaping the labor mix, the human roles that remain are increasingly high-level, making them prime candidates for AI-augmented productivity gains, such as through QAD’s recent product announcements, Hebner explained.

“I think the conventional wisdom is that manufacturing is mostly about hourly line workers on the factory floor. In reality, many of those jobs have already been automated out of existence or moved overseas,” he said. “Much of the human capital that remains in manufacturing is now in more strategic roles, and there is still substantial room for productivity improvements across every stage of the value chain, from supply chain to production, packaging and final delivery.”​

Stay tuned for the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the QAD Champions of Manufacturing event.

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the QAD Champions of Manufacturing event. Neither QAD, the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE