- Industrial AI is moving into live operations, and Cisco’s (NASDAQ:CSCO) global study finds 61 per cent of industrial organizations are now using AI in real‑world, safety‑ and performance‑critical environments, with measurable benefits in automation, maintenance, logistics, and energy forecasting
- Infrastructure and security gaps are limiting scale, and while 83 per cent plan to increase AI spending, many organizations face constraints from network readiness, wireless connectivity demands, and cybersecurity, with 40 per cent citing security as the top obstacle to expanding AI
- Organizations with stronger collaboration between IT and operational technology teams report more stable networks and greater confidence in scaling AI, while weak collaboration is linked to network instability and deployment challenges
- Cisco stock (NASDAQ:CSCO) opened trading at US$80.02
Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) released its latest annual industrial research report, The State of Industrial AI, detailing how artificial intelligence is moving rapidly from pilot projects into live, mission‑critical operations across global industrial environments. The study finds that while AI is already delivering measurable benefits in areas such as automation, maintenance, and logistics, many organizations remain constrained by shortcomings in network infrastructure, cybersecurity, and IT‑to‑operational technology (OT) coordination.
The report is based on a double‑blind global survey of more than 1,000 operational technology decision‑makers conducted in association with Sapio Research. Respondents represented organizations with annual revenues exceeding US$100 million and spanned 19 countries and 21 industrial sectors, including manufacturing, transportation and logistics, and energy and utilities.
According to the findings outlined in a media release, industrial AI has shifted from a future aspiration to an operational reality. Sixty‑one percent of surveyed organizations report using AI in live industrial operations, where reliability, uptime, and safety have direct physical consequences. One in five respondents said their organizations have already reached scaled or mature AI deployments.
Use cases cited in the report include automated quality inspection, predictive maintenance, logistics optimization, energy forecasting, robotics, and machine vision. Cisco said respondents increasingly associate these deployments with concrete operational improvements, such as reduced downtime, improved asset utilization, and higher process consistency.
Despite the progress, the survey suggests that the pace of adoption is outstripping organizational readiness. More than four‑fifths of respondents (83 per cent) said their organizations plan to increase AI spending, and 87 per cent expect to see meaningful outcomes from AI initiatives within the next two years. However, many also report difficulty sustaining and expanding existing deployments as AI moves into real‑time, production‑grade environments.
One of the most prominent challenges identified in the report is infrastructure readiness. As AI becomes embedded directly into machines, sensors, vision systems, and autonomous operations, organizations are facing increased demands for reliable connectivity, predictable latency, wireless mobility, edge computing capacity, and power resilience.
Nearly all respondents (97 per cent) said AI workloads will have an impact on their industrial network requirements. More than half (51per cent) expect AI to significantly raise reliability and connectivity demands, while 96 per cent said wireless networking is essential to enabling AI in industrial settings. The findings suggest that network capability is increasingly acting as a gatekeeper for scaling AI across physical environments.
Cybersecurity also emerged as a critical factor shaping both the speed and confidence of industrial AI adoption. As AI systems broaden data flows and connectivity across factories, utilities, and transportation infrastructure, security concerns are intensifying. Forty percent of respondents cited cybersecurity as the single biggest obstacle to scaling AI initiatives.
At the same time, many organizations view AI as part of the solution to these challenges. Ninety‑eight percent of respondents said cybersecurity is foundational to AI‑ready infrastructure, and 85 per cent expect AI to strengthen their cybersecurity posture by improving monitoring, detection, and operational resilience.
The report also highlights the role of organizational structure and collaboration in determining AI success. Effective coordination between IT teams and operational technology groups is identified as a key enabler of stable, scalable AI deployments. While 57 per cent of respondents reported some level of collaboration between IT and OT teams, 43 per cent said collaboration remains limited or nonexistent.
Organizations with weaker IT‑OT alignment were more likely to report operational challenges related to AI. Among those with limited collaboration, nearly half (47 per cent) cited network instability as a major barrier to expanding AI across industrial operations. In contrast, respondents reporting closer IT‑OT cooperation expressed greater confidence in scaling AI and emphasized cybersecurity as a baseline requirement rather than an afterthought.
Cisco said the findings illustrate a widening gap between AI ambition and operational readiness in industrial sectors. As AI systems increasingly influence physical processes, the report suggests that success will depend not only on algorithms and data, but also on the underlying networks, security frameworks, and workforce skills that support them.
The State of Industrial AI Report aggregates responses from decision‑makers operating in complex, asset‑heavy environments where system failures can have safety, financial, and regulatory consequences. The study underscores that while industrial AI is delivering tangible benefits today, its future impact will be shaped by how effectively organizations address foundational infrastructure and organizational challenges as deployments continue to scale.
Cisco Systems Inc. designs, develops, and sells technologies that help to power, secure, and draw insights from the internet in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, Japan, and China.
Cisco stock (NASDAQ:CSCO) opened trading at US$80.02 and has risen more than 50 per cent since this time last year.
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