Industrial Automation Market Seen Reaching $410.3 Billion by 2031, Wissen Research Says

Robot installations set a record

Wissen Research points to the factory floor as the clearest evidence of growth. The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) reports that factories installed a record 603,000 industrial robots in 2025, up 11% from the year before. The global operational stock reached 5.079 million units. IFR forecasts installations to rise another 9% in 2026, to approximately 655,000 units.

According to the study, the market is moving from hardware-oriented, isolated machine control toward connected, software-based production. That model combines control hardware, robotics, industrial software and real-time analytics. Wissen Research names labor shortages, rising quality standards and the need to control complex processes in automotive, electronics, food and pharmaceutical manufacturing as the main demand drivers.

Robotics is also spreading beyond car plants. In 2025, installations in metal and machinery grew 22%, while automotive and electronics each rose 10%. Collaborative robots accounted for 66,000 new installations, about 11% of the total. China installed about 354,000 robots in 2025, roughly 59% of the global total and 20% more than the year before. India installed nearly 10,500, up 15%. Chinese manufacturers supplied 55% of the robots installed in China in 2025, up from approximately 28% a decade earlier, which intensifies competition for established international vendors.

AI moves into live operations, with security gaps

The report cites Cisco's 2026 State of Industrial AI study, which found that 61% of surveyed organizations were using AI in live industrial operations and 83% planned to increase their AI spending. Practical uses include predictive maintenance, process automation, automated quality inspection, logistics and energy forecasting.

Integration is harder than buying software. In the same Cisco study, 97% of respondents expected AI workloads to affect their industrial network requirements, 51% anticipated higher connectivity and reliability requirements, and 43% reported limited or no collaboration between IT and OT teams. Wissen Research sees opportunities in industrial networking, edge devices, real-time data infrastructure and digital twins.

Connectivity also raises cybersecurity risk. Honeywell's 2026 OT Cybersecurity Benchmark Report found that only 21% of surveyed organizations had a complete inventory of their operational technology assets, even though 88% described their cybersecurity programs as mature. Respondents reported an average of 16.2 hours of downtime from their most significant incidents, with losses reaching up to USD 500,000 per hour. The 2025 SANS ICS/OT Security Survey found that only 49% had detection capabilities designed for industrial control systems, and just 26% of that group considered them highly effective.

Growth drivers, costs and recent deals

The study lists several growth drivers:

• Semiconductor capacity: new wafer plants need tight control of temperature, pressure, gas flow and contamination.
• Electrified vehicles: battery and motor production needs automated handling, robotic welding and vision-based inspection.
• Pharmaceutical traceability: regulation calls for automated inspection and batch control systems.
• Food inspection and packaging: high-speed lines rely on machine vision and reject systems.
• Brownfield modernization: companies replace outdated PLCs and drives with connected platforms without a complete plant renovation.
• Energy optimization: chemical, oil and gas, and metals producers adopt advanced process control and real-time monitoring.

Upfront cost is the first barrier. Replacing an old control system often means interrupting production, reconfiguring hardware, upgrading software and validating the result. Smaller businesses can find it hard to finance such projects.

Recent deals cited in the report include ABB Ltd.'s agreement in July 2026 to acquire Rotork plc through a recommended all-cash offer valued at approximately USD 5.5 billion. In July 2026, American Industrial Partners completed its acquisition of Honeywell International Inc.'s Intelligrated and Transnorm businesses, combining them with Trew into a warehouse automation provider that generated over USD 1 billion in 2025 revenue. Also in July 2026, City Electric Supply partnered with Siemens Digital Industries, and in September 2026 Emerson Electric Co. announced plans for a service center in Qatar's Umm Alhoul Free Zone.

What it means for the market

The figures are Wissen Research's projections, and the underlying robot data comes from IFR. For vendors, the study suggests demand is broadening across industries and regions, while competition is rising, particularly from Chinese robot makers. For manufacturers, the report points to a practical split: AI is already in live use at many sites, but results depend on clean machine data, working IT and OT links, legacy systems and security.