Avnet Insights: Engineers Outline Opportunity for AI

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For the fourth consecutive year, Avnet, Inc. (Nasdaq: AVT) will release its Avnet Insights survey, which has been keeping a pulse on how engineers are responding to the market since 2021. This year’s survey examines technology’s new frontier: Artificial Intelligence, and the promise – and challenges – it presents for product design.

Preliminary insights include:

• Engineers are optimistic about market conditions. Three-quarters (75%) of respondents say they think market conditions for the products they’re designing are getting better.
• AI increasingly integrated in product design. Globally, 4-in-10 (42%) of surveyed engineers have incorporated AI into their product design and are currently shipping those products. Another 4-in-10 (40%) are working on incorporating AI into their product design, but have not yet shipped products.
• Engineers pinpoint current AI adoption. When it comes to current embedded AI deployments with the highest adoption rates, engineers say the top functions are process automation (42%), predictive maintenance (29%) and fault/anomaly detection (27%).
• AI will have an impact across the board. Looking ahead, 42% of engineers think that AI will play an equally important role in both hardware and software products.
• Security, data stay top-of-mind. Engineers pointed to several challenges they foresee when integrating AI into their products, primarily security and privacy concerns (37%) and data quality issues (31%).

“Early results from our latest Avnet Insights survey demonstrate a clear opportunity for AI in product design and development,” said Alex Iuorio, Senior Vice President, Global Supplier Development, Avnet. “What remains to be seen is how it will be applied. As we look towards what is to come in 2025, it is apparent that it will be more important than ever for engineers to work together – with one another and with their technology partners – to understand and navigate this continuously evolving new frontier.”

The full 2024 Avnet Insights survey will release in January 2025.

Avnet Insights is an annual survey of engineers. The 2025 survey was conducted online and fielded to 1,204 global respondents, fielded October 31 through November 15, 2024. Regionally, respondents were based in the Americas, EMEA, Asia, and Japan.