Industrial-scale artificial intelligence, focused at making real-time operational impacts on the factory and plant level, is producing nearly unanimous efficiency endorsements from company executives seeing what AI actually achieves on the production floor, according to a new report by IFS.

The IFS Industrial Index 2026 surveyed about 2,200 senior leaders across the world whose responses indicate that AI is making immediate impacts at the operational level. The industrial AI software company is hosting its  customer-focused IFS Unleashed event this week in Orlando.

Those decision makers already see a 93% improvement in “first-time-right” performance due to the impact of AI tools, with 90% reporting tangible gains in reliability and performance.

“The factory floor is moving at full speed. Workers see the operational insights, know their data better than anyone, and they know they need industrial-grade AI solutions to turn that expertise into action,” Cathie Hall, chief product and customer officer at IFS, said in a statement. “The real challenge for leadership isn't driving adoption, it's having the insights to clear legacy roadblocks and delivering the secure industrial harness, data pipelines, and governance required to scale these wins safely and globally."

Operational efficiencies translate into energy efficiencies and sustainability improvements, leaders say. Among those representing companies tasked with getting the goods to customers, 88% surveyed by the IFS Industrial Index reported improvements in achieving on-time delivery schedules.

AI tools also helped those companies realize a 50% gain in employee time saved in areas such as production throughput and quality assurance, according to the report. The survey engaged leaders at companies in 14 countries.

The momentum for using agentic AI to achieve more effective factory-floor results is rising. The IFS Industrial Index reported 43% of those surveyed leaders saying their companies have trained and introduced agentic digital workers in day-to-day operations over the past 12 months.

The factory floor employee is tackling AI learning even at a slightly higher level than executive leadership, the survey shows. For AI to revolutionize #commercial and #industrial sector performance holistically, the operational brain shift must come from the top down, too.

“Industrial operations are defined by speed and consequences. Every decision, every asset, every second compound,” Hall said. “To compete, leadership must match the frontline's pace. That means having industrial AI at the heart of operations to support rapidly scaling agentic AI, enabling the safety, governance, and data controls that make rapid decision-making trustworthy and operationally sound.”

IFS Unleashed picks its pace Tuesday at the Orlando World Center Marriott with AI-focused sessions featuring company CEO Mark Moffett, Siemens Digital Industries Software CEO Tony Hemmelgarn and Kiva Allgood, managing director at the World Economic Forum, among others.