Manufacturing has always run on precision, repetition, and scale. Those same qualities make it a natural fit for artificial intelligence. AI has always been discussed in manufacturing, but the conversation has shifted. Increasingly it is about speed and diffusion of AI in service to outcomes in manufacturing. The question now is how fast manufacturing firms can leverage the full spectrum of AI capabilities, and what happens to the companies that wait.
This report leverages OODA’s rubric for assessing AI adoption in companies, the Artificial Intelligence Acceleration Quotient (AAQ) to evaluate the manufacturing sector overall and 20 of the largest companies in the sector by their readiness to leverage AI.
The report examines the current state of AI adoption across the manufacturing sector, identifies the use cases generating real returns, and flags the risks that executives and policymakers need to take seriously. The analysis draws on publicly available data, vendor disclosures, and insights from the OODA Network.
Companies evaluated in the report include:
Lockheed Martin | AAQ: 78 | AI-Accelerating | ML: 80 | GenAI: 82 | Agentic: 70
Caterpillar | AAQ: 76 | AI-Accelerating | ML: 82 | GenAI: 68 | Agentic: 78
John Deere | AAQ: 75 | AI-Accelerating | ML: 80 | GenAI: 65 | Agentic: 80
General Motors | AAQ: 72 | AI-Accelerating | ML: 75 | GenAI: 72 | Agentic: 68
Rockwell Automation | AAQ: 70 | AI-Accelerating | ML: 72 | GenAI: 75 | Agentic: 62
Ford Motor | AAQ: 68 | AI-Accelerating | ML: 72 | GenAI: 65 | Agentic: 65
Honeywell | AAQ: 67 | AI-Accelerating | ML: 70 | GenAI: 68 | Agentic: 62
RTX (Raytheon) | AAQ: 65 | AI-Accelerating | ML: 68 | GenAI: 62 | Agentic: 64
Northrop Grumman | AAQ: 58 | AI-Adopting | ML: 62 | GenAI: 55 | Agentic: 56
Boeing | AAQ: 55 | AI-Adopting | ML: 60 | GenAI: 50 | Agentic: 55
Emerson Electric | AAQ: 55 | AI-Adopting | ML: 58 | GenAI: 55 | Agentic: 50
General Dynamics | AAQ: 50 | AI-Adopting | ML: 55 | GenAI: 48 | Agentic: 45
Cummins | AAQ: 48 | AI-Adopting | ML: 55 | GenAI: 42 | Agentic: 45
Paccar | AAQ: 45 | AI-Adopting | ML: 50 | GenAI: 40 | Agentic: 44
3M | AAQ: 45 | AI-Adopting | ML: 52 | GenAI: 42 | Agentic: 38
Dow Inc. | AAQ: 43 | AI-Adopting | ML: 50 | GenAI: 40 | Agentic: 37
Parker Hannifin | AAQ: 40 | AI-Emerging | ML: 45 | GenAI: 38 | Agentic: 35
Illinois Tool Works | AAQ: 38 | AI-Emerging | ML: 42 | GenAI: 35 | Agentic: 35
Nucor | AAQ: 37 | AI-Emerging | ML: 42 | GenAI: 32 | Agentic: 35
Textron | AAQ: 35 | AI-Emerging | ML: 40 | GenAI: 30 | Agentic: 33
About the Author
Bob Gourley
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