IoT Is not optional.
It's foundational.
Gartner® report confirms: sustained competitive advantage in manufacturing requires relentless focus on AIoT-enabled platform capabilities — for both automation and autonomous factories. Are you ready?
Gartner® Emerging Tech Impact Radar 2026
84%
of manufacturers plan to increase IIoT investment in the next 2 years, including 18% who expect to boost spending by more than 10%
69%
rate industrial IoT as extremely important technology investment to support smart manufacturing
180%
IoT platform adoption in manufacturing is experiencing rapid and accelerating growth, with several IoT platform vendors reporting up to 180% YoY revenue growth
What's inside
10 emerging technology profiles, Priority Matrix, investment timing insights, and AIoT vendor landscape for manufacturing — including Cumulocity's position.
The AIoT imperative is here
01
IoT Platform — very high mass, 1–3 year range
Gartner® rates IoT platforms as “Very High” impact with near-term adoption. Cumulocity delivers the composable, AI-native architecture manufacturers need to act now.
02
Industrial data management — the AI Linchpin
Without clean, contextualized industrial data, AI hallucinates. Cumulocity’s IDM turns raw OT/IT/IoT data into trusted intelligence.
03
Edge AI — default architecture for Next-Gen intelligence
By 2029, at least 60% of edge computing deployments will use composite AI (both predictive and generative AI [GenAI]), compared to less than 5% in 2023. Cumulocity’s edge-native stack puts real-time decision-making at the machine.
04
Digital Twins — 79% plan investment by 2028
From predictive maintenance to production optimization, Cumulocity’s digital twin capabilities create living virtual models of your operations.
05
GenAI-Enabled IoT — domain-specific intelligence
Cumulocity enables manufacturers to build domain-specific language models powered by real operational data — the competitive moat of the next decade.
06
Product Servitization — very high impact, new revenue streams
Transform capital equipment into recurring-revenue services. Cumulocity’s platform is the technical backbone for outcome-based business models.
“Sustained Competitive Advantage Requires Relentless Focus on AIoT”
— Gartner®, Emerging Tech Impact Radar: IoT for Manufacturing, March 2026
The Gartner® 2026 IoT for Manufacturing report maps the exact technologies that will define competitive advantage in the next 3–8 years. Get your copy.
Gartner®, 2026 Emerging Tech Impact Radar: Internet of Things for Manufacturing, By Scot Kim, Evan Brown et al., 4 March 2026
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