3 Market Intelligence Takeaways from the 2026 A3 Business Forum

The 2026 A3 Business Forum brought together automation leaders for three days of networking, expert sessions, and market analysis to kickstart the fiscal year in the best way possible. With sessions focused on emerging technology trends, turning your customers into superfans, and the future of AI and cybersecurity, there was plenty to take in. 
Each year, fan-favorite sessions include forward-looking keynotes on what’s next for the automation market, along with a future economic outlook from ITR Economics. As one attendee summed it up, it was “the perfect event to kick off the year with excellent market insight and emerging trends that our company can capitalize on.”

Here are three key takeaways from the market intelligence shared at the A3 Business Forum.

1. AI dominates the emerging tech attendees want to integrate.

Each year, the A3 Market Intelligence team surveys the Business Forum attendees on their sentiments for the current state of the industry. A3 EVP Alex Shikany presented these results in the context of other automation market research during his Wednesday keynote: “The Latest Automation Statistics, Trends, & Key Market Drivers.” Of note in the presentation was the positive outlook for AI solutions. Reflected in the below chart, AI technologies (vision, LLMs, and programing) took the top three spots for the emerging technologies respondents are considering for implementation in 2026. Shikany shared that this “area is ripe for disruption.”

2. Sales expectations are more positive for 2026 than 2025 or 2024, by a meaningful margin.

While “uncertainty” was a dominant sentiment in 2025, mainly surrounding tariffs and higher costs, this year, Shikany reported that sales expectations are stabilizing. He pointed to Deloitte’s 2026 Manufacturing Industry Outlook which surveyed hundreds of manufacturing executives on their investments in smart manufacturing, focusing on the importance of our industry right now.

“Number one is investment in smart manufacturing is likely to continue in 2026 as manufacturers seek to improve competitiveness, agility, resilience, in an uncertain business environment.” This investment is an opportunity for the automation industry. “That’s us,” he explains. “That’s demand for everybody in this room, for the physical, the robots, the hardware, the cameras, the motion control components, but also the software, the integration services. That is us.” 

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During ITR Economics CEO and chief economist Brian Beaulieu’s keynote, he also spoke of the possibilities in front of the automation community, emphasizing the call for strong growth in the technologies. 

3. Focusing on your business’ potential service operations can offer protection in a future depression.

ITR Economics forecasts a coming Great Depression in the 2030s. Their economists foresee a heavy impact landing on the manufacturing industry as a result of this extreme economic downturn. In Beaulieu’s session, he offered advice to the automation technology companies for when this future becomes a reality, telling them to focus on their potential service opportunities.

“Manufacturing is gonna be the hardest hit form of economic activity during the depression. It has been thus over the last 5 recessions,” he explains. “Service sector is the least hit. What about your business can be pure service sector? Not that you’re gonna become dentists, but you function like service sector business. After market, maintenance type activities — those are service operations. Can you engage in those to protect yourselves from the industrial pain that we see coming in the 2030s?”

Get more access to Market Insights with MI+

Beyond the Business Forum, A3 offers these valuable market insights year round. Our Market Intelligence division tracks trends across robotics, automation, and AI to help the industry understand where the market is headed. With an MI+ membership, you can access clear analysis of industry data, research, and insight tailored to help you make smarter decisions as manufacturers, integrators, and technology providers. The best part, your whole organization gains access to these reports when you subscribe. You can get a taste of the content and learn how to get started by visiting automate.org/market-intelligence.