Industrial organizations are accelerating AI deployment across manufacturing, utilities, and transportation and running straight into a security problem. Cisco’s 2026 State of Industrial AI Report, based on responses from more than 1,000 decision-makers across 19 countries, finds that cybersecurity has become the single largest obstacle to AI adoption, outranking skills gaps, integration challenges, and budget constraints. The shift is notable. In 2024, cybersecurity ranked third among external growth obstacles. By 2026, 40% of respondents cite it as a top barrier to AI adoption specifically, and 48% name it as their biggest networking challenge overall. The rise reflects the reality that connecting more assets and systems to support AI expands the attack surface in ways that traditional security approaches were not designed to handle.

Full report : Industrial AI adoption is accelerating, but cybersecurity and IT/OT collaboration gaps are limiting scale across industrial operations.