Industrial businesses are embracing artificial intelligence, but they’re done with the hype cycle. A new Forterro survey finds that companies are prioritising AI investments that solve real business challenges and deliver measurable operational outcomes, not AI for its own sake. The findings show 64% of respondents see AI as a top priority over the next 24 months. But priority isn’t the same as blind faith: half of respondents say adoption will be driven specifically by AI’s ability to improve margins and streamline operations. This is a market asking for proof, not a pitch, and it’s a demand Forterro can already answer, not just promise.
“Our customers are no longer asking whether AI matters, they’re asking how it can help them operate better,” said Dean Forbes, CEO of Forterro. “We’re not answering that with generic hype. We’re answering it with customers who are already using AI inside their business and seeing the results. That’s a different conversation to the one the big tech platforms are having.”
The research also points to the role customers expect their software providers to play. 74% expect Forterro to either support (41%) or actively steer (33%) their AI roadmap: a clear signal that businesses want a partner grounded in proof and trust, not a vendor selling a platform from the outside in.
“Industrial businesses don’t need another collection of disconnected AI tools bolted on from outside their systems,” Forbes continued. “They need to see AI working inside the systems and workflows they already run their business on, for businesses like theirs. That’s the difference between AI as a headline and AI as a result, and it’s the standard we hold ourselves to before we bring anything to market. Our customers’ proof is our success.”
Respondents pointed to specific operational gains and Forterro’s early adopter customers are already delivering them. The capabilities already running span the full width of an industrial operation: from automating payment advice matching and purchase contract comparison in finance, to sales order processing and cross-selling intelligence in commercial teams, to setup time optimisation and quality control in production, to predictive replenishment and goods entry automation in the warehouse. No corner of the business is out of reach, and no new interface is required. The AI surfaces inside the systems manufacturers already use, at the moment they need it.
The results are already measurable. Across the programme, customers have redirected significant FTE capacity from manual processing to higher-value work, eliminated manual quoting effort through AI-generated estimates built from historical data, and identified material revenue and cost opportunities that were previously invisible. For Orbis, an Abas customer in Forterro’s AI early adopter programme, the number is already on the table: €130,000 per year in revenue upside from anticipating demand decline before it became unnoticed product obsolescence.
This isn’t theoretical. It’s already playing out inside Forterro’s AI hackathons and early adoption programme, where customers are working directly with Forterro to solve specific operational challenges and where the results, not the ambition, are what’s driving the next stage of investment.
“Customers are telling us they want a partner they can trust with confidence, not a vendor selling them the future,” added Forbes. “Every AI capability we have developed has been shaped by customers proving it works for their business first. That’s our model, and it’s why we’re confident in what comes next.”
Forterro will reveal how it’s putting this into practice later this year, as it prepares to bring its AI investments directly into the hands of customers on a larger scale.
