“To realize the promise of Industry 5.0, companies must move beyond cost and efficiency to focus on growth, flexibility, and human-centered outcomes,” says Sachin Lulla, EY Americas’ leader in industrial and energy transformation. “It requires not only new technologies, but new ways of working — where people and machines collaborate, and where value is measured not just in dollars saved, but in new opportunities created.”
An MIT Technology Review Insights survey of 250 industry leaders worldwide shows that most industry investments still target performance. And while the data shows that human-centered and sustainable use cases deliver high value, they are underfunded. Research shows that most organizations are not realizing the full potential of Industry 5.0 due to:
Culture, talent, and collaboration barriers.
• Strategic and misguided technology investments.
• Use case prioritization focuses on performance over development, sustainability, and well-being.
According to research from Oxford University’s EY and Saïd Business School, the hurdle to achieving Industry 5.0 transformation is not just about getting the technology right, but also about strengthening people-centric elements such as strategy, culture and leadership. Companies are investing heavily in digital transformation, but not always in ways that unlock the full human potential of Industry 5.0.
“We’re not doing digital just for the sake of it, which is what I call ‘chasing the digital fairy,'” says Chris Ware, general manager, Iron Ore Digital, Rio Tinto. “We have to be very clear about what tasks we go after and why. Each domain has a unique roadmap for how to deliver the best value.”
This content was produced by Insights, the custom content arm of MIT Technology Review. It was not written by the MIT Technology Review editorial staff. It is researched, designed, and written by human authors, editors, analysts, and illustrators. This includes survey writing and data collection for the survey. AI tools that might have been used were limited to secondary production processes that underwent thorough human review.