Agentic AI & Talent Gaps: Deloitte on Manufacturing in 2026

After 2025 was defined by contraction and trade uncertainty, 2026 could be a critical inflection point according to Deloitte. 

The firm’s 2026 Manufacturing Industry Outlook says that the industry is moving from experimental AI pilots to at-scale implementation.

Success, it says, depends on balancing aggressive technology investment with highly adaptive workforce strategy. 

“US manufacturing faced notable challenges in 2025; however, our latest outlook identifies opportunities on the horizon for 2026,” says John Morehouse, Research Leader at the Deloitte Research Center for Energy and Industrials, on LinkedIn. 

Talent uncertainty and skills requirements

Competition for skilled labour is intense, particularly as manufacturers invest in advanced digital tools and smart manufacturing facilities. 

The top concern for more than a third of manufacturing executives in a 2025 Deloitte survey was “equipping workers with the skills and knowledge they need to maximise the potential of smart manufacturing and operations”.

If the trend toward reshoring accelerates, Deloitte says that the supply of skilled workers could become more strained. 

The report suggests that a “build, buy or borrow” framework for workforce planning could help manufacturers to stay agile. 

This involves investing in talent that is most important to the core of the business, recruiting external personnel with expertise that may take longer to develop internally and hiring temporary workers or third parties to help meet fluctuating demand. 

Smart manufacturing and agentic AI

A 2025 Deloitte survey of 600 manufacturing executives found that 80% plan to invest 20% or more of their improvement budgets in smart manufacturing initiatives. 

These investments will focus on foundational tools and technologies including automation hardware, data analytics, sensors and cloud computing.

The report highlights agentic artificial intelligence (AI) as “poised to elevate smart manufacturing and operations”. 

Deloitte expects industry adoption of agentic AI to grow considerably in the next few years as it can help manufacturers:

• Identify and engage suppliers in response to disruptions
• Capture knowledge from retiring employees
• Make jobs more attractive to younger generations
• Maximise production uptime with generated handover reports and instructions
• Improve customer experience. 

The report says that agentic AI “lays the foundation for physical AI”, which nearly a quarter of manufacturers plan to use in the next two years according to a survey conducted by the Manufacturing Leadership Council. 

This includes humanoid robots that can traverse unstructured environments and accomplish tasks, like installing specific parts. 

Semiconductors and data centres

A surge in AI and data centre infrastructure is creating downstream growth for industrial equipment.

Deloitte’s report says that startups focussed on small modular reactors attracted US$3.9bn in funding in 2024, ten times the level of investment in 2023. 

In the US, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act provides 35% investment credits for semiconductor facilities. 

US President Donald Trump’s administration has also released America’s AI Action Plan, a policy roadmap for US AI leadership, which could help accelerate demand for related manufactured components.

Large OEMs have reported multi-year agreements to produce key components like transformers, switchgear, power generation systems and power management equipment and some are sold out for multiple years. 

Deloitte says that as of July 2025, more than US$500bn in private sector commitments to the US chipmaking ecosystem were announced. 

Managing supply chain complexity

Trade uncertainty remains the top concern for 78% of manufacturers according to the National Association of Manufacturers’ 2025 Q3 manufacturers’ outlook survey.

Deloitte’s report says that the future could bring greater trade uncertainty, with sourcing challenges likely to continue.

A majority of trade professionals surveyed by the Thomson Reuters Institute in March 2025 indicated that their companies are already using technology to evaluate trade routes, identify risk, find potential cost savings and perform scenario modeling.

Agentic AI can provide enhanced visibility and agility by autonomously detecting and mitigating supply chain risk, Deloitte says. 

The report says that targeted investments in digital tools, including agentic AI, “could be essential for manufacturers to maintain a competitive edge in 2026 and beyond”. 

Aftermarket services

The report says that aftermarket services can be an important revenue source and profit driver for industrial manufacturers. 

They can deliver margins more than two times higher than equipment sales alone and can create predictable, less cyclical revenue streams and strategic differentiation.

Deloitte says that agentic AI and other new tools could help manufacturers to improve their aftermarket services.

By taking autonomous action on data across multiple internal and external systems, agentic AI can help to reduce response times and help customers minimise downtime. 

For example, an agentic aftermarket system could detect component wear based on usage patterns and autonomously order parts, reallocate inventory, schedule service, manage part delivery and optimise part manufacturing quantities.