Comment: Why do manufacturers invest in technologies such as robotics, cloud computing and AI? What are the main barriers to adopting new tech? And how do these manufacturers plan to invest in the future? Anders Billesø Beck, vice president for strategy and innovation at Universal Robots, provides some answers.

Prioritising the evolving needs of end customers is essential for any business. To gain a deeper understanding of what these needs are, Universal Robotics, a Danish manufacturer of collaborative robot arms (cobots), carried out a survey of 1,200 manufacturers in Europe and North America.

The focus of the survey was to find out how these manufacturers are using technology now and how they plan to invest in the future.

The four key takeaways from the survey include:

1. AI: From hype to must-have

While AI has only really become a topic of everyday conversation in the past two years, in the manufacturing industry it is already a business imperative. The survey reveals that over half...