工业自动化：从控制到智能

AI is reshaping the automation valuepyramid into an hourglass. By Michael Schertler, Neil Malik, Adrien Bron,Scott Duncan, and Mike Coxon Industrial Automation: From Control to Intelligence At a Glance Industrial automation has begun a structural shift: Value is moving away from control Profit pools are moving to the top (software, data, AI) and bottom (smart devices) ofthe stack—leaving the core control technologies in the middle under pressure. Legacy advantages are eroding faster than most incumbents expect. By 2030, nearly half of industry revenues are expected to rely on AI-enabled offerings. Industrial automation is no longer about controlling machines—it’s about orchestrating intelligence. For decades, industry leaders followed a clear logic: Improve production and manufacturing efficiency,quality, and safety through increasingly sophisticated control systems. The economics were obvious.Value sat in proprietary high-performance controllers, tightly integrated systems, and the services and What’s changing is not just automation technology,but where economic value is created in the market. That logic is now reaching its limits. What’s changing is not just automation technology, but whereeconomic value is created in the market. What once looked like a pyramid—value concentrated in controlhardware and systems—now looks more like an hourglass, with the middle shrinking and the ends At the top of the stack, value is concentrating in software, data platforms, and AI-enabled workflows.These layers scale faster, carry higher margins, and compound in value as data and use cases accumulate.They increasingly act as the “brain” of industrial operations, translating raw signals into decisions and Industrial Automation: From Control to Intelligence By contrast, the traditional control layer in the middle—programmable logic controllers (PLCs), distributedcontrol systems (DCSs), input/output modules (I/O), supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), andtheir related proprietary software—remains essential but is becoming harder to scale and to differentiate.New entrants are compressing margins by shifting value away from these core controls. By the end of thedecade, most industry profit pools will flow to the two ends of this hourglass, away from the center, By 2030, nearly half of industry revenues will rely onAI-based solutions, underscoring how value is shifting Industrial Automation: From Control to Intelligence Figure 2:New technologies will significantly shift industry profit pools toward Industrial Automation: From Control to Intelligence Figure 3:AI will create new industrial market value of nearly $70 billion over the Bain research shows that by 2030, nearly half of industry revenues will rely on AI-based solutions,underscoring how value is shifting toward intelligence. AI-enabled solutions alone could unlock up to$70 billion in new market value by 2030, according to Bain’s 2026 Industrial Automation Executive Eroding advantage Most incumbents understand that the industry is going digital. Fewer appreciate how quickly that shiftundermines the sources of differentiation they have relied on for decades. Three forces are acceleratingthe erosion. First, the operating environment has changed fundamentally. Labor shortages are structural:Manufacturing workforces in developed markets are aging rapidly, with more than 40% of US manufacturing Second, the sources of differentiation are moving beyond hardware. Control performance is increasinglytable stakes. Manufacturers expect systems that can adapt, optimize, and learn over time. In particular,they want production automation technologies that interconnect upstream with design, engineering, and Industrial Automation: From Control to Intelligence Third, competition is intensifying from both ends of the stack. Hyperscalers and AI-native players areexpanding into industrial software and data platforms. At the same time, aggressive hardware competitors—particularly from China—are compressing margins in controllers and basic automation components, The risk for incumbents is not overnight disruption—it’s gradual irrelevance. It’s a slow drift from moststrategic manufacturer partner to component supplier, even while revenues appear stable. This is why Tomorrow’s competitive edge In the next era of industrial automation, leaders will orchestrate intelligence rather than deploy moretechnology. It is about how software, data, and smart devices come together—vertically, not horizontally— The most important shift is from control logic to decision logic. Traditional automation excels at executingpredefined instructions in stable environments. The next wave of value creation comes from systems thatcontinuously decide—prioritizing trade-offs, adapting to variability, and optimizing outcomes across timeand assets. AI-native workflows are moving from analytics layers into the operational core, shaping decisions AI’s first wave of impact will also be