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Who this guide is for

  • Leaders driving AI transformation in manufacturing who need to scale proven pilots across plants
  • Operations owners focused on OEE/uptime/quality and connecting legacy assets with new sensors
  • IT/OT, data and security leads building a unified, secure edge to cloud foundation for AI
  • Engineering & innovation leaders exploring agentic AI, digital twins and connected worker at scale

Why this paper

Manufacturers don’t need more hype—they need a path to scale.

Many are stuck in pilot purgatory—limited visibility, disconnected systems, and rising costs stall progress. This guide shows how leaders move from experimentation to execution—aligning AI to business outcomes, standardizing OT data and integrating it with enterprise systems, and securing every layer from edge to cloud so wins multiply across sites.

Inside, you’ll find what actually moves the needle: a proven framework that links data visibility, cybersecurity, human–machine interaction, and agentic AI readiness to measurable gains in OEE and ROI. A clear roadmap to turn isolated successes into a repeatable, enterprise‑wide advantage.

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What’s inside

  • The reckoning in manufacturing: costs, complexity, and the data visibility gap
  • The five imperatives to scale AI—business led decisions, unified data, security first, agentic AI readiness, and human machine interfaces
  • From insight to action: a practical route to scaling AI, featuring the Agentic Development Lifecycle (ADLC) to accelerate value from pilots to multi-site rollouts—in weeks, not years.

What’s at stake: Business impact from AI at scale

Expose the “dark” ~30% of assets to unlock visibility and value.
Backed by real-world deployments and ROI, this paper outlines how manufacturers are achieving:

2-5% higher production uptime through real time insights

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~ 4x ROI by reducing unplanned downtime and targeting interventions.

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Faster time-to-value with AI accelerators and embedded expertise

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Greater resilience and sustainability across sites and geographies through better visibility, quality and energy optimization.

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Improved workforce productivity via intuitive human–machine interfaces and readiness for agentic AI

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The factory of the future is a reality shaped by those bold enough to lead it.

Why Cognizant

Scaling AI in manufacturing demands IT–OT orchestration, not just smarter models. Cognizant unifies legacy and enterprise data, hardens security edge to cloud, and accelerates rollout with prebuilt reference architectures and governance frameworks designed for multisite scale. Our approach combines deep engineering expertise with pre‑built accelerators and governance to make progress repeatable and safe at scale.

We back this with our global smart manufacturing innovation labs and a three shore, global delivery model—rapid prototyping, real world testing, and industrialization. From digital twins and edge intelligence to connected worker solutions and agentic AI readiness via the Agentic Development Lifecycle (ADLC), we help you embed intelligence into every layer of operations. Coupled with an ecosystem including AWS, NVIDIA, OMRON, and more, we’re helping manufacturers move from isolated wins to enterprise impact.

Ready to learn more?

Build operations that are connected, autonomous, and continuously optimized.