Automotive is the industry under the most brutal pressure to cut cost and recover competitiveness. It should be the one scaling AI the fastest.
Several respectable research studies and surveys show that it isn’t.. At least in the manufacturing domain.
There are many promising pilots, but scaling lags behind sectors like software, finance and pharma. Why?
For my DBA research I’ve been reviewing the literature, and four themes becoming more visible:
Trust: AI is probabilistic. Automotive quality is built on a zero-defect culture. The uncertainty tolerated in a pilot becomes unacceptable at scale.
Data: We have plenty of it, but it’s fragmented, unlabeled and hard to trace. Turning that big data into a meaningful takeaway is very difficult.
Competency: AI literacy in the quality function is still maturing.
ROI: When all of this combines, investment budgets stay frozen until a hard return is proven. Even when the benefit is obvious, securing investment is very hard in the current automotive crisis.
After 21 years in this field, I’m increasingly convinced of one thing: launching a pilot is a technical event. Scaling is a complex decision under uncertainty.
And what really slows automotive down isn’t the technology, it’s how those decisions get made under today’s industry pressure.
To those of you on the ground: what actually stopped you from moving pilot to scale for AI use cases in automotive quality?
Do these four themes match your reality, or are you seeing something else?
I would really appreciate your feedback. It would genuinely enrich my research.
Thank you!
Sources behind the post:
– McKinsey & Company (Nov 2025) — The State of AI in 2025: Agents, Innovation, and Transformation
https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai
– Capgemini / Sogeti / OpenText (Nov 2025) — World Quality Report 2025–26: Adapting to Emerging Worlds
https://www.capgemini.com/insights/research-library/world-quality-report-2025-26/
– BCG, Levin ve ark. (Jan 2025) — Capturing Real-World Value in Automotive AI
https://www.bcg.com/publications/2025/value-in-automotive-ai
– Lucidworks (2024) — Generative AI Global Benchmark Study: Manufacturing Edition
https://lucidworks.com/ebooks/2024-manufacturing-b2b-ai-benchmark-survey/
