In two years, the number of companies operating in the industrial area that use Artificial Intelligence (AI) More than doubled and introduced a 163%jump. The quantity went from 1,619 in 2022 to 4,261 in 2024.
In the first half of last year, 41.9% of industrial companies surveyed made use of AI, while this brand was 16.9% two years before.
The finding is in the semiannual innovation research (Pintec), released on Wednesday (24) by Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). The survey was made with a sample of 1,731 companies in the industrial areain a universe of 10,167 companies with 100 or more employees.
The survey was funded by the Brazilian Agency for Industrial Development (ABDI), a non -profit Brazilian organization. The study had technical support from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).
IBGE thematic research manager, Flávio José Marques Peixoto, associates the advance of AI with the greatest use of so -called generative IAS. “Those that create content, text, images,” he says.
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It contextualizes that, between the two surveys, there was the launch in November 2022 and the diffusion in 2023 of ChatgPT, software AI that simulates conversations and creates content. “I would say that it is related to this greater increase, this availability,” he says.
Flávio Peixoto lists a series of other forms of artificial intelligence that have gained space in industrial companies, such as data mining, speech recognition, image process recognition, natural language generation (GLN), machine learning (Machine Learning), the automation of processes and workflows.
“One that is particularly interesting in industry is predictive maintenance, use of AI within the production system, in the physical movement of machines, decision making, means in an autonomous way,” he describes.
Business profile
IBGE has identified that AI use becomes more common as the size of the company increases. In businesses with 500 or more employees, 57.5%of companies use AI, surpassing the brand of companies from 250 to 499 employees (42.5%) and with 100 to 249 workers (36.1%).
Within companies, The most used areas were administration (87.9%) and commercialization (75.2%).
IBGE has mapped the areas of activity in which AI is most present. At the top of ranking Figure:
- Computer, electronics and optical equipment: 72.3% use
- Machines, appliances and electrical materials: 59.3%
- Chemicals: 58%
Of the 25 branches surveyed, the three with least AI use are:
- Smoking: 22.9% of companies use
- Leather: 20.7%
- Maintenance, repair and installation of mechanisms and equipment: 19.2%
Advanced digital technologies
The study reveals that 89% of industrial companies (9,054) use some advanced digital technology.
In addition to AI, IBGE raised the adhesion of companies to five other advanced technologies. All had greater penetration than AI and only two are used by more than half of the companies:
- Cloud computing (paid service): 77.2%
- Internet of Things: 50.3%
- Robotics: 30.5%
- Analysis of Big Data (software To collect, process and analyze megados): 27.8%
- Additive Manufacturing (3D printer): 20.3%
- AI: 41.9%
The sectors with the highest and lower use of digital technology were:
1) Other transportation equipment: 98.3%
2) Machines, appliances and electrical materials: 97%
3º) Record printing and reproduction: 96%
23º) Smoke: 77.8%
24º) Wood: 76.2%
25º) Cellulose, paper and paper products: 73.5%
Total Industry: 89.1%
The researchers were able to map that 20.8% of companies used only one advanced digital technology, while 27.3% used two. Only 5% of companies combined the six technologies.
The most used by the business that used only one technology was cloud computing, with 64.5% of companies.
Benefits affected
Pintec sought to know from entrepreneurs what were the benefits achieved with the use of digital technologies. Nine out of ten companies cited an increase in efficiencyand less than half listed entry into a new market.
- Increased efficiency: 90.3%
- Greater flexibility in administrative, productive and organizational processes: 89.5%
- Improved relationship with customers and/or suppliers: 85.6%
- Greater effectiveness in market service: 82.9%
- Higher development capacity for new products or services: 74.7%
- Reduction of environmental impact: 74.1%
- Entry into new markets: 43.8%
- Other: 1.5%
Motivation
In investigating what motivated companies to join technologies, IBGE noted that 88.6% responded to an autonomous strategic decision. To 62.6%, the reason was the influence of suppliers and/or customers. Practically half of them (51.9%) listed the influence of competition, while 28% pointed to the attractiveness of support programs, whether public or private.
Despite the increased attractiveness of incentive programs (by 2022, it was a response of 26%), “few companies (9.1%) benefited from public support programs,” said IBGE.
Matter of survival
For analyst Flávio Peixoto, the result is an indication that, more than gaining new markets, the adherence of companies to advanced digital technologies is a need for survival in the environment where they already operate.
“When you often have this demand from suppliers and customers to migrate, to use certain types of technologies that are integrated, especially in logistics, in the process of supplying this chain, either the company does this movement or will be excluded, will not be part more of this chain,” he says.
The researcher cites the example of the auto industry. “The customer places an order on the tip, this reflects throughout the chain, but it only happens if the technologies are really being used more integrated,” he says.
Cost and labor
In the universe of industrial companies that use advanced digital technologies, 78.6% of them informed researchers that the high costs of technological solutions made adoption difficult. The lack of qualified personnel was informed by 54.2%.
Among the companies that do not use technologies, the main impediment factor was also the high costs, pointed out by 74.3% of companies. The lack of qualified personnel was also the second most pointed justification (60.6%).
Less teleworking
IBGE researchers identified that, in two years, the percentage of companies linked to industrial activities that adopted teleworking fell. In 2022, 47.8% of companies had the work regime. In 2024, the percentage went to 43%, representing 4,357 companies.
Telework was more common in companies with 500 or more employees (65.3% of them). In the contingent of workers between 250 and 499 people, the level was 39.1%, surpassing the business that had between 100 and 249 employees (36.3%).
In companies dealing with administration (94.6%) and marketing (85%), teleworking was more frequent. At the other end, they were production sectors (35.5%) and logistics (51.7%).
