Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: On this episode of Control Alt Manufacturing, we are cutting through the hype around automation to focus on what's actually happening on the plant floor. Today we're joined by good friend Mark Hoskey, editor in chief of Control Engineering, to unpack the 2026 state of automation report.
We're going to find out where manufacturers are investing, what's delivering real roi, and how engineers are thinking about emerging technologies and workforce challenges in a constantly shifting business environment.
If you're specifying, implementing or justifying automation, this episode is for you. Welcome to Control Alt Manufacturing.
Hello, hello, hello, everybody. Welcome back to the CTRL Alt Manufacturing podcast, Resetting and Rethinking Manufacturing.
Thank you for spending some of your valuable time with us today. I'm guessing you've been here before, if you're listening, but if you haven't, maybe first off, why haven't you? Come on, get your life together.
But just so you know, to level set, this podcast explores some of the people, technologies and strategies that are driving the digital transformation of manufacturing. I am Thing 1. Gary Cohen. I am now realizing I'm not gonna call you Thing 2, Stephanie, even though it's a good Dr. Seuss reference.
Co host Stephanie Neal, who is not Thing 2.
[00:01:25] Speaker B: Thing 2 here reporting for duty. Thank you. Hey, but think speaking of two like this, like we are in season two of this podcast. I know. So, like, if you're not with us, jump on board.
[00:01:39] Speaker A: And things are going to get wild here in season two, we predict. We don't know that, but sure, we'll make them wild. No, we're really happy. We started this in, I think the first episode dropped in October.
So we are recording. This is the first recording we are doing in 2020, the beginning of season two. So we're excited to be back here. And you know, I mean, Stephanie, I think if there's one thing we know about manufacturing right now going into this new year, it's that nothing is standing still. I mean, you and I go to shows all the time.
Budgets are tighter, but expectations are higher, which is contradictory.
I think automation, which we're talking about today and always talking about control engineering, it's not a nice to have anymore. It's a requirement. You have to have it. It's now not if you're investing in automation. It's, you know, where, why, and how you justify it.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: Yeah, totally.
So, you know, you talked about shows. Excuse me.
First of all, I wanted to ask you, when was the last time you went to Vegas?
[00:02:44] Speaker A: Is this a gambling question?
It's probably been A year and a half to two years now. It was for a cybersecurity show.
And so I'm thinking it was in 2024.
[00:02:54] Speaker B: All right, so did they have the loop, the Vegas loop going then? Have you been on that?
[00:02:59] Speaker A: I have not.
[00:03:00] Speaker B: It's like these Teslas that are in these underground tunnels and.
[00:03:03] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've heard of it. It was not.
[00:03:07] Speaker B: Well, so I was there in September, and they had construction going on at the Las Vegas Convention Center. So the buildings, like, you'd have appointments that were 10 minutes apart, but it would take you 30 minutes to walk between the buildings. So I jumped into one of these little.
Because somebody recommended it and it was great. It literally zoomed me from one end of the convention to the other in a matter of like three minutes. But I.
If you're claustrophobic, be careful.
[00:03:36] Speaker A: Is it just you in there or are you in there with 10 others?
[00:03:39] Speaker B: Well, there's a driver. They're not autonomous vehicles, so there is a driver. I think eventually they will be autonomous, but. Yeah, but you go into this tunnel and it's kind of lit up with these funky colors. And so you're like, oh, nice, this is fun. And then you get like into the bowels of it and you're like, oh, wait a minute, how long is this ride?
[00:03:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: Anyway, I bring that up because CES 2026 in Vegas, right, Starts off the year with this show.
I have always just sort of ignored this show because I'm like, I report on automation and manufacturing technology, and in my mind, this is like a consumer electronic show. Like, we're going to see the new gadgets.
[00:04:26] Speaker A: My dad was in sales in consumer electronics, so when I was a kid, he went to CES every year. And I always thought of it as like, video games and gadgets.
[00:04:33] Speaker B: Yeah, like, fun show. Like, I mean, huge show.
Everybody goes. Cause there's so many cool things there. But again, I thought of it as like the gadget show. Well, this year, like, Boston Dynamics is showing off Atlas, their humanoid for the first time in public, and they're partnering with Hyundai and they're talking about all these human centered AI robotics. And there's keynotes from Siemens and Caterpillar where I'm like, what's going on with this show? And what does this mean to, like, just us in general? Because it just feels like all of the technologies and everything that we've been doing in manufacturing, which has been fairly. We felt like, oh, this is. We own this. Like, this is our stuff. It's now trickling into the mainstream. And I think it's exciting. But more importantly, Gary, next year you and I need to go to the CES show.
[00:05:21] Speaker A: I think we should go to ces. I'd love to. I went once or twice when I was a kid just to look at video games with my dad, but it was. But yeah, I'd love to go back and see what it looks like. And I think you're right.
I think AI is a huge driving force in this. But the event in the last few years has kind of transformed from this showcase of smart devices and gadgets and video games and fun stuff. Not that automation isn't fun, but into, you know, it's all now connected intelligent autonomous systems. And I think it's crossing industries more than it used to. So, you know, if you go now, it's advanced robotics and industrial transformation and you know, mobility, autonomous mobility and things like that that I don't think were really there as of a few years ago. So. And I agree. I think this is a show that if you'd said five years ago we should cover ces, I would have said that sounds like fun. I don't know why we're going, but it absolutely falls right into our sweet spot now.
[00:06:23] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I know there were some editors from the robotics side of our house that attended, so I think we're gonna get some good coverage, but I'm gonna put that in our travel budget next year.
[00:06:34] Speaker A: Gary, I think you should.
Let's look at 2027. Yeah, yeah, no, that's a great idea. And yeah, I think it would be a really interesting show for us. And you know, we come back with a ton of content and a kind of ton of videos and all kinds.
[00:06:48] Speaker B: Well, I was reading like, cause I wasn't there, but I was reading that the keynote from the CEO of Siemens was talking about will operate autonomously, producing only what is needed when is needed. Medicine will be tailored to individual biology with life saving therapies. Like this is like stuff that we're like, we're tuned into, but now it just feels like it's bigger than us.
We are the pioneers here. Everybody that we talk to on this podcast, we are pioneering all of these great tools and technologies that are going to change the world, right?
[00:07:25] Speaker A: Absolutely. I mean even the, the as we're recording this, the last podcast we dropped is on Digital Twin. And I think as of a few years ago, that would have been a really niche topic. And it's really been one of our highest performing podcasts because everybody's Using it now, if you're not, you want to. I mean these technologies are, as I said at the start, they're no longer nice to have. They are. We have to have these things. And so yeah, I think things are really changing a lot in that. And we'll talk about that today with Mark because we are really building this whole episode over the or around the 2026 state of automation report from Control Engineering. So that's going to be a research driven look at how manufacturers and SI system integrators, engineers are actually thinking about automation. So it's not going to be vendor promises or hype. This is going to be real world insights from people who are actually using and living with these technologies every day.
Should be a fun discussion.
We are, I mean we know this guy very well. I don't know if everybody else knows this guy very well, but we are gonna be talking to Mark Hosky. He's been the editor and content manager of control Engineering since 1994. Been in a leadership role since 1999. He's been covering every major area. Control systems, networking and information control equipment and energy.
The guy knows this stuff. So excited to have him on here. And without any further hullabaloo, which is not a word I use very often. Mark, come on in.
[00:08:52] Speaker B: Hey, Mark.
[00:08:53] Speaker A: And I want you to use the word hullabaloo in your hullabaloo.
[00:08:56] Speaker B: Use that in a sentence during our conversation.
[00:08:58] Speaker C: Yes, thank you. Thanks for having me on. I'm so pleased to join the Control Alt Manufacturing podcast list of experts by talking about our community's insights on State of Automation.
Research is very important to us and I'm happy to discuss and share what we've done about the state of manufacturing.
[00:09:20] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean that's why we're having you on. I think we Control Engineering almost at all. Manufacturing has so many good research pinned touch points throughout the year that I think we should talk about some of this stuff. You know, Stephanie and I opened this whole podcast back in the day last year talking about the State of Manufacturing report. So let's start this, Mark. I mean before we get really into the details, let's level set this thing.
What is the State of Automation report? You've been doing it for a while. And when and how can people get their hands on it?
[00:09:53] Speaker C: Thank you. To quote some of the first words in the report, the State of Industrial Automation 2026 from Control Engineering analyzes how this dynamic sector is reshaping industries worldwide. And that's what you talked about in your intro.
It expands on the 2025 report.
And the 2026 report offers survey results, data analys analysis and actionable insights for manufacturers, technology vendors, system integrators and policy makers who are striving to thrive in this era of rapid technological changes.
[00:10:31] Speaker A: This is actually, I think the second year you've done this report, if I'm correct. And so I'm sure you learned quite a bit from the first one. How does this new report, the 2026 edition, build on what you learned last year? What's different?
[00:10:42] Speaker C: Yes, well, analytics and recommendations are useful in both reports in the 2026 edition. It was great to be able to identify some of the year over year trends.
[00:10:55] Speaker B: So Mark, one thing that Control Engineering always does well is being transparent about research quality, methodology, margin of error, who actually responded. Is that kind of detail included in this report too?
[00:11:07] Speaker C: Yes. Yeah, and I want to thank Amanda Pellicione, marketing research manager for Control Engineering. She collected and helped analyze the.
She always includes that kind of information for every control engineering research report.
It's critical and it's often overlooked by some people doing research for this 2026 State of Automation report.
In the November and December email survey of Control Engineering subscribers, the report went out in an email survey. These are really people who buy and specify automation. The 147 total responses were received. 113 complete answering all the questions. And that created a margin of error of plus or minus 8.1%. Now from a practical standpoint, paying attention to margin of error in research, that just means being honest about the findings and not making a big deal about differentiating responses that fall within that margin of error.
And knowing those providing answers to the survey questions is also important.
Respondents to the survey, much like the Control engineering subscriber base, included 54% end user engineers and system integrators, and 72% were from locations fewer than 250 people. So that kind of gives you an idea of who we're talking about here. And while ChatGPT helped shape the original report in 2025, we checked every AI suggestion and data point the original data. Stephanie, you were part of that.
In 2026. We used the control engineering team without AI because we felt like we had the shape that we wanted for the report and then continued on with the research.
[00:12:56] Speaker B: Yep, all humans behind this report.
So you know, we talk a little bit about kind of the mechanics of putting it together and the analytics and the demographics, but when you step back and look at the data, Mark, is there anything that stood out to you as Some of the key takeaways.
[00:13:13] Speaker C: Yeah, I think everyone will find something they can use in the report, perhaps different even from my perceptions. So I'd encourage that they read and consider the full report rather than the news story about it or this podcast. But I like looking at automation and.
[00:13:30] Speaker A: Hold on, Mark, hold on. Let's don't tell people not to listen to the podcast. I'm going to stop you right there.
[00:13:35] Speaker C: No, in addition to, in addition to.
[00:13:38] Speaker A: All right, that's better. You may proceed.
[00:13:41] Speaker C: So I've always liked automation investment justifications. So people have real lives and budgets and they have to justify the projects that they're using and the technologies that respondents are interested in. So the top two ways that respondents assess return on investment in automation technologies in this report were operational efficiency improvements at 61% and reduced downtime or maintenance costs at 47%.
[00:14:12] Speaker A: And that actually, and I teased this up a little bit in the intro talking about roi, I mean, we all know that with new technology you've got to get buy in throughout the company, but definitely from the C suite, from the respondent's perspective in this what types of automation are delivering the biggest returns right now?
[00:14:29] Speaker C: Yes, well, you know, we have our buy specify categories and all of those are important, but the types of automation seen as producing the highest return on investment. In survey respondents, operations were 41% for advanced process controls and control system optimization. And that's not surprising because that's our bread and butter. And then next in a three way statistical tie was 26% for operations visibility, such as dashboards, multi level HMI, SCADA systems, that sort of thing, 25% for motion control and robotic systems, and 24% for advanced quality control systems.
There were five other automation technologies listed in that question and those were for safety for processor, machine systems, design analytics or product lifecycle management systems, predictive analytics for maintenance, batch scheduling, manufacturing, execution systems or enterprise resource planning Systems. And then IoT and edge computing platforms. And all of those connect into automation. So those five other ones, they ranged on the top side from 17% for the safety down to 8% for the IoT and edge computing platforms. But one thing about control engineering subscribers is that they from 3 to 5 of the product categories that people buy and specify they're actively involved in. So it's not surprising to have the breadth in this answer.
[00:16:09] Speaker A: Yeah, and that safety aspect, when you said that, that, I mean, obviously I've seen the report, but that's something that always sort of, you know, I listen to because when you talk to people about automation. That's one of the things that they'll talk about. Factory floors, they're dangerous and dirty. And you know, putting automation into places where you can, you know, make, make people's lives easier, make people's jobs safer. That's a really big part of it, right?
[00:16:34] Speaker C: To, to keep it from being dangerous and dirty. That that's what automation is for.
[00:16:39] Speaker A: Exactly.
We talked about some of the results here. Obviously we'll get into more.
I'm curious if the results gave you a sense of the why. Why are companies investing right now? What's driving some of these automation decisions?
[00:16:55] Speaker C: Yeah, well, the primary drivers for investments and automation technologies. That's something that's important. In the report, 70% said cost reduction and operational efficiency is important. That was by far the largest category. 48% said enhancing product quality and consistency, 46% increasing workforce productivity and 40% improving safety.
Those implementing and using automation can achieve automation upgrade benefits by overcoming top barriers. And identified barriers are high implementation costs, integration challenges, workforce skills and cybersecurity concerns, among others.
And you know, it's not just new investments in automation that's helping. For More than 1/5 of the survey respondents, automation upgrades accounted for 21% or more of annual capital expenditures.
So it's a spread between new automation and upgrades, which is good. I mean, that's important to take care of existing investments as well.
[00:18:09] Speaker B: So. Well, Mark, you've been covering this industry for a really long time and given those results, did any of this genuinely surprise you?
[00:18:19] Speaker C: I do think the year over year findings are particularly interesting. I think engineers appreciate seeing changes and what didn't change along with the related analysis and recommendations.
[00:18:32] Speaker B: Can you give us like some specific examples?
[00:18:35] Speaker C: Oh, sure, yeah. So in 2026, for instance, we saw a 9 percentage point shift from moderate to conservative adoption of leading edge automation technologies.
Now, I understand that the 2026 business environment has additional risks. However, respondents also suggested that many perceived risks fueling that lag in investment often can be addressed with appropriate applications.
Same cutting edge automation technologies. Some irony there, right?
So applying cutting edge automation can be risky. However, the automation investments can resolve some of those challenges, lower risks and optimize operations.
One metric that remained consistent year over year was a 12% respondents identified as early adopters of leading edge automation technologies.
Same percentage in both years. I'm grateful for many of those people share their success stories in the control engineering community because that's important to what we are and who we cover and how we approach the application and implementation of automation.
[00:19:50] Speaker A: You talked about workforce challenges, earlier skills challenges or shortages.
Sort of another contradiction here. We know from control engineering salary and career research that hiring and retaining skilled workers is a constant challenge. Definitely right now, but and I think people think automation is taking our jobs. But automation can also be part of the solution there. Did that show up here in the research?
[00:20:14] Speaker C: Yes. Well, automation innovation remains underused.
That's a clear message in all the research that we do.
It provides opportunities for automation vendors and control system integrators to drive awareness and adoption through targeted education and pilot programs. As you know from the annual salary survey and career research, the workforce is undergoing profound shifts right now. The State of Automation report says that 35% of respondents highlight the creation of high skill roles as important and 33% are using automation to continue production by filling the skills gap.
The related recommendation to that is that automation reduces low skill labor demand and that industries must address that growing skills gap through upskilling and cross functional training in their facilities. Now here again, the control engineering community helps with that because that's a lot of what we write about COVID do videos on webcasts. That's what we do.
[00:21:20] Speaker A: Absolutely. Because I'm a control engineering reader. You also wrote in your January February Think Again column, you wrote it based on this report. I remember maybe 10 minutes ago you were really laudatory about the podcast and said everybody should listen to the podcast. That I remember. But you also said that people shouldn't just read your column. How is the column different from the report itself?
[00:21:41] Speaker C: Well, it's much shorter, of course, and it includes some information and reflections not covered in the report, just like the podcast includes information not in either location. But the point of my Think Again column has always been to get our community to reconsider automation or automation topics in a different way.
Good research does much the same, covering a similar topic and a different question to bolster the validity of the results.
In this Think Again column, I jump into an answer that drives some of the analysis in the full report.
But the answer isn't fully covered in the report. It's the survey question, what emergent technologies are most critical to your organization's future success?
So by a large margin, those technologies are advanced process controls, control system optimization that includes no or low code programming at 52%, followed by tools for digitalization, efficiency and regulatory compliance at 33%.
The next five automation technology selections were in a statistical dead heat given the margin of error for the survey. And those are 25% for artificial intelligence, intelligence and machine learning for predictive maintenance 23% digital twins for process optimization, 22% advanced robotics for precision tasks and 19% for 5G networking connectivity and also 19% for cloud based control systems.
[00:23:18] Speaker B: These are all great, all good statistics. Great for us to like take a little look into the report, but we don't want to give it all away, right Mark? We want people to read this report.
So let's just go over again for listeners who may have missed it. We kind of went over in the beginning like what is still available from this 2025 or what is still available from the 2025 State of Automation report.
[00:23:42] Speaker C: Yes. Yeah, so you're right on. I was going to talk about the 2025 and 2026. So the last year's report, the State of Automation 2025 includes the report itself along with three accompanying articles.
After posting the report in the research area of control engineering, we did a short news story linking to the report and that was Control engineering releases the 2025 State of Industrial Automation Report. So there's that to read. And then I did a think again last year about the state of industrial automation in 2025 and in that I provided some additional analysis, reflection and recommendations. And then finally toward the end of last year, we did a State of Automation 2025 research with year end insights and guidance given that we covered the topic throughout the year. That last one we posted in it was November 6th of last year and it included more than 40 links to supporting articles related to the research results and analytics. I think it's very useful reference to have in relation to the report.
[00:24:52] Speaker B: So obviously Mark, it's much more than just this report. I mean we're looking at it year over year. It's great to see the trends that are changing year over year. But we're not just going to publish a report and that's the end of it. So looking at 2026, what does this year's report include? What kind of follow up coverage do you have planned?
[00:25:12] Speaker C: Thanks. Well, the report itself is Automation Investments, Priorities and Trends, Automation adoption and ROI metrics, workforce transformations and skill development, barriers to automation success, drivers of automation investments and emerging technologies that are driving transformation.
So additional coverage building on the report itself.
The additional supporting information is in my Think Again column and this podcast. Thank you very much.
In 2026, more is planned on survey respondents, explanations of opportunities and advice about automation. In every research report we always ask them, can you give some advice about this topic? So I'm going to include a story on that and then We've got a February 24th webcast on control System Integrator Advice to maximize automation investments.
We'll also have a System Integrators Automation Recommendation Roundtable with some more advice from System Integrators, automation implementation examples and case studies, and additional podcast interviews on state of automation topics that you and Gary and maybe I will be involved in.
So there's a lot to think about on the topic.
[00:26:37] Speaker B: Tell us again, There's a webcast February.
[00:26:41] Speaker C: 24Th webcast February 24th webcast and the title is Control System Integrator Advice Maximizes Automation Investments.
[00:26:52] Speaker B: And for that and that'll be available archived like on demand for a year.
[00:26:57] Speaker C: Yes, because that's an RCEP webcast that includes a professional development hour for anybody who passes the quiz.
[00:27:06] Speaker B: Yeah. Important.
[00:27:08] Speaker A: Excellent. We've taken a ton of your time, Mark. You've been really generous with us. But before we wrap up, I'm going to ask you one of my favorite journalist questions out there. Is there anything we didn't ask you that you think is important for people to understand about this research or what the research is saying about automation as it exists right now?
[00:27:25] Speaker C: Yeah, well, you can't tell that I'm passionate about automation research, right?
Since before I began with control Engineering in 1994, research has been an important part of our coverage and connection to the control engineering community.
Available at www.controleng.com research.
Our recent research reports on motors and DR, HMI, SCADA and PLC's our annual salary reports, among others.
More is planned for this year, AI and control systems, another refresh of the annual salary and career survey, our product of the year coverage, PLCs and PACs, system integrator giants and a year end update on motors and drives again.
So it's fun and useful to share what our expert audience and community knows through control engineering research, and I sure appreciate the time and opportunity to talk about it here.
[00:28:25] Speaker A: Mark, we're happy to have you on. I'm guessing you'll be on again, but we appreciated having you on today. Thanks so much for coming on and sharing your expertise and talking about the State of Automation report. It's really, if you're not already looking at Control Engineering's research tab. As Mark just pointed out, look at it. There's some really good stuff on there and it should be able to help you inform what you do for a living.
I'm guessing if you're listening to this podcast, automation plays some sort of role in your life. So Mark, thanks so much for coming on. Happy to have you.
[00:28:53] Speaker B: Thank you, Mark.
[00:28:56] Speaker A: All right, great Now, I just want to point out Mark did a great job. I enjoyed listening to all of it. He never used the word hullablue. I asked one thing before this podcast started and I didn't get it.
[00:29:07] Speaker B: I know, right?
[00:29:09] Speaker A: It's just so disappointing. I mean, I kind of listened to the rest of the stuff he was saying, but I was just so floored and gutted that we didn't get the word hullabaloo. I almost couldn't pay attention.
[00:29:19] Speaker B: Well, I mean, you said it several times already, so I think we got it in the. We got it in the podcast.
[00:29:23] Speaker A: It's gonna be.
[00:29:25] Speaker B: Hullabaloo is represented in.
[00:29:26] Speaker A: Today when I post this podcast, I am gonna add hullabaloo with the keyword.
So if anybody searches it, this podcast will of course come up. It's the next logical step.
Yeah.
[00:29:37] Speaker B: So before we wind down, I just did. I wanted to pick up on the. Really the last thing that Mark said, which was talking about connecting our community. And this is so important. And I think, you know, control engineering and all of like the WTWH brands, we do some great research, like deep research, that is really valuable and it does connect our community. It connects the people who are like the people who are buying technology with the people who are selling technology, making sure that their needs are met, understanding what their priorities are, what their investment challenges are.
We really have to look at this as a much bigger entity than just representing of here we have a new report. It's connecting so many different needs and people. And again, I love the fact that he talked about this community.
[00:30:35] Speaker A: I agree with you. And that community exists not just on Control engineering, but on all of our other brands, engineering.com and plant engineering and consulting. Specifying engineering here, we're hitting it from a bunch of different angles. So yeah, if there's something that you're looking for data points on, there's a good chance we've got it in our research archives.
And this, by the way, I also want to point out, this is why we make such a good podcasting pair, is I spout nonsense and you're like, hahaha. Thanks, Gary. Let's get back to the information.
[00:31:03] Speaker B: It's just a bunch of hullabaloo.
[00:31:06] Speaker A: I think we gotta end there, don't you? I mean, I think we're done now. We've come full circle.
[00:31:11] Speaker B: I think we have. And so what I want to say to you and to everybody out there, have a wicked good day.
[00:31:17] Speaker A: Thanks everybody.
