Global Corporate Survey 2026: Industrial Transformation Budgets, Priorities And Tech Preferences
Access this research
Access all Industrial Transformation Leaders content with a strategic subscription or buy this single report
Need help or have a question about this report? Contact us for assistance
Executive Summary
This report provides industrial leaders in operations, maintenance, engineering, data science and process safety functions with an opportunity to evaluate their industrial transformation budgets, priorities and technology preferences in relation to their peers. The 2026 Verdantix industrial transformation global corporate survey is the most comprehensive yet, with insights drawn from interviews with 333 decision-makers across 22 industries and 16 countries and regions, and 74% of respondents representing firms with revenues greater than $1 billion. The survey data, provided in conjunction with existing Verdantix research, help industrial software vendors adapt their offerings to the evolving demands of customer firms. In 2026, industrial firms are prioritizing initiatives to achieve safer operations, improve asset uptime, reduce energy consumption and optimize production yield. Increased interest in AI and AI agents is driving use cases from predictive maintenance to production optimization. This report offers both big-picture and granular insights on the trajectory of industrial firms and how they plan to achieve their objectives.
Figure 1. Revenue breakdown of survey respondents
Figure 2. Business function of survey respondents
Figure 3. Industry breakdown of survey respondents
Figure 4. Geographic location of survey respondents
Figure 5. Industrial transformation priority initiatives
Figure 6. Planned industrial transformation initiatives spend
Figure 7. Standard maintenance approach
Figure 8. Critical assets maintenance approach
Figure 9. Approaches to managing key operational activities
Figure 10. Digital transformation budgets
Figure 11. Digital transformation of industrial activities
Figure 12. Factors driving digital transformation
Figure 13. Current stage of industrial digital transformation
Figure 14. Planned spend on industrial software
Figure 15. Process safety management (PSM) priority initiatives
Figure 16. Planned spend on PSM software
Figure 17. Impact of AI technologies in transforming industrial operations
Figure 18. Application of AI agents to industrial activities
Figure 19. Approaches to data collection, organization and use
Figure 20. Barriers impacting the success of industrial AI analytics projects
About the Authors
Robin Sureda-Tasis
Analyst
Robin is an Analyst at Verdantix with a focus on frontier technologies, such as AI analytics, extended reality and industrial data management. He delivers actionable insi...
View Profile
Malavika Tohani
VP Research
Malavika is a VP Research at Verdantix, guiding research that explores how digital technologies and services are reshaping industrial operations to become safer, more efficien...
View ProfileOther related content
Operating models built around predictable supply and long planning cycles are struggling under sustained disruption. Industrial firms face mounting pressure from energy volatility,...
Upcoming / 26 January, 2027
Maintenance and reliability leaders face three converging pressures: ageing equipment that is becoming harder to maintain, experienced technicians retiring and expectations for upt...
Upcoming / 03 December, 2026
Generative and agentic AI are changing the economics of industrial software, introducing variable, compute-heavy costs that sit uneasily with fixed SaaS subscriptions. Industrial b...
Upcoming / 25 November, 2026
AI experimentation is widespread across industrial operations, but turning pilots into repeatable business value remains a challenge. As experienced technicians retire and critical...
Upcoming / 24 November, 2026
Process safety incidents happen when risk signals go unrecognised in time to act. The challenge for many organisations is that their software is built to record what occurred rathe...
03 November, 2026
Many industrial organisations can point to a site where their reliability programme has delivered clear results. Replicating that success elsewhere is far more challenging. In th...
29 October, 2026