84 predicts around 40 per cent of enterprise applications will feature task-specific AI agents this year, suggesting companies have a window of just three to six months to develop agentic capabilities to avoid falling behind. Industrial AI already answers queries like ‘What was the average power usage in this area over the past 24 hours?’ Agentic applications will perform deeper analytics. For example, feed composition changes in chemical distillation processes typically require operator intervention. But process simulation software paired with a deep reinforcement learning agent can stabilise the system twice as fast as manual control. With agentic AI, manual rework goes the way of typewriter correction fluid. Another shift for 2026 is that physical AI will power real-world automation. Agentic AI is just one sub-segment of physical AI, which refers to systems that interact with their physical environment, often automatically. Increasingly, we will see these systems integrated within a physical machine, such as a robot or vehicle. Together, data analytics, machine learning and robotics will change how industrial facilities operate, including in complex environments like factories. Taiwanese pilot runs have shown how automating high-precision tasks such as screw tightening and cable insertion can cut deployment time by 40 per cent and reduce electronic assembly costs by 15 per cent. In the USA, drones have improved delivery times by a quarter and boosted efficiency by a similar 25 per cent, according to a joint report from the World Economic Forum and Boston Consulting Group. Expect the trend to develop rapidly, but again, deployment speed will depend on data quality. That’s equally true for embodied AI, the next horizon technology. By next year, digital twins will evolve from isolated replicas of discrete assets and processes into live and continuously updated simulation systems that reflect real-time changes across the entire value chain – thanks in part to Drones have improved delivery times and efficiency by 25 per cent in the USA, according to the World Economic Forum and Boston Consulting “ We’re now facing a future where connected humans work alongside intelligent machines, called Industry 5.0” VIEWPOINT Photo: iStock/bernardbodo
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