Only 37 per cent of U.S. manufacturers have significant or full automation in place, Vention report finds

Dec. 16, 2025, Montreal — While 92 per cent of manufacturers agree automation is essential for long-term competitiveness, only 37 per cent report having significant or full automation in place, a new State of the Market report from Vention and Industry week stated.

Despite the hurdles, the industry’s commitment to automation remains robust, with 73 per cent of companies planning to increase investments in the next three years, with 46 per cent specifically targeting robotics and automation.

Reportedly, the gap persists not because manufacturers lack interest, but because traditional automation does not meet today’s market requirements.

The report highlights the top reasons why automation projects fail to meet expectations:

• 50 per cent struggle to identify the right technology
• 39 per cent cite a lack of internal expertise
• 32 per cent experience budget overruns

“These statistics confirm what we at Vention, and the industry at large, have known for years: traditional approaches limit manufacturers in what they can accomplish,” said Etienne Lacroix, founder and chief executive officer of Vention, in a media release. “Manufacturers don’t have an automation problem, they have an integration, complexity, and predictability problem. And this is exactly what Vention’s solutions are built to solve.”

While the survey identifies several constraints in more traditional approaches, it also highlights the need for fundamentally new approaches that remove integration bottlenecks, compress deployment timelines and reduce project risk.

To download the full report, click here.