Manufacturing/page/2 news and trends

Stablecoins Hand Manufacturers a Working Capital Windfall, if CFOs Move
B2B Payments // October 02, 2026

Stablecoins are technically capable of eliminating one of global manufacturing’s oldest financial inefficiencies. The simple, persistent, and compounding friction of money that spends too much time traveling. But turning a three-day supplier payment into a three-minute one exposes a different bottleneck. The money can now...

Ford and Rockwell Fast-Track Rookie Technicians With AI
Artificial Intelligence // October 02, 2026

A mechanic at a Ford dealership who has never pulled the engine from a Super Duty pickup can now follow instructions from artificial intelligence (AI) through the job. Removing the engine alone takes about two days, Ford CEO Jim Farley said at a media roundtable...

P&G Takes Its AI Scrap Killer Global
Artificial Intelligence // September 29, 2026

Procter & Gamble is expanding an artificial intelligence (AI) quality inspection system across its manufacturing operations worldwide, turning a tool that proved itself on individual lines into standard equipment for the whole company. The system, built with Siemens, inspects every product in real time at...

S&P Global Data Shows Fastest US Business Growth Since Post-COVID Reopening
Economy // September 23, 2026

U.S. business activity grew in September at the fastest rate for over five years, according to the S&P Global US Flash PMI released Wednesday (Sept. 23). The flash S&P Global US PMI Composite Output Index rose from 56.0 in August to 58.4 in September, marking the fourth...

Interviews & Exclusives
Squint’s Founder Turns Factory Know-How Into AI’s Starting Point

September 11, 2026
Ask a veteran factory technician how to fix a machine that’s acting up, and the answer might sound less like an engineering manual and more like folklore: if it smells like this, hit it three times on the left side and it comes back to life. That kind of knowledge never gets written down. It […]

Physical Goods Firms Are Learning to Live Without a Clear Forecast

May 15, 2026
The modern economy increasingly runs on two separate operating systems. One is digital, asset-light and geographically fluid. The other is physical, capital-intensive and exposed to every fracture line in the...

Smart Manufacturers Redesign Plants to Unlock AI Gains

February 11, 2026
Manufacturers racing to deploy artificial intelligence (AI) are often experiencing an uncomfortable reality: productivity declines before gains materialize. A study by MIT Sloan describes what it calls a “productivity paradox”...

AI Moves Manufacturing From Automation to Autonomy

December 29, 2025
Take a look at the agenda for the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show if you want to see where agentic AI is headed. Said agenda is loaded up this year with...

Quick Reads
Genpact Expands Agentic AI Suite to Industrial Accounts Receivable

October 14, 2026
Genpact has launched a suite of agentic artificial intelligence solutions designed to handle accounts receivable tasks for industrial clients in manufacturing and mining, the company said in a Wednesday (Oct. 14) press release. The Genpact Accounts Receivable Suite includes Genpact AR Collections, which prioritizes accounts and suggests next-best actions; Genpact AR Resolution Center, which captures, […]

S&P Global Data Shows Fastest US Business Growth Since Post-COVID Reopening

September 23, 2026
U.S. business activity grew in September at the fastest rate for over five years, according to the S&P Global US Flash PMI released Wednesday (Sept. 23). The flash S&P Global US PMI...

Jeff Bezos Raising $100 Billion to Supercharge Manufacturing With AI

March 19, 2026
Jeff Bezos is meeting with some of the world’s largest asset managers to raise $100 billion for a new fund that would buy manufacturing companies and transform them with the...

Ex-OpenAI Research Chief Aims to Bring AI to Manufacturing

March 04, 2026
OpenAI’s former chief research officer is reportedly raising $70 million for a manufacturing-focused artificial intelligence (AI) startup. Arda, co-founded by Bob McGrew, is raising money at a valuation of $700...