A new IFS study has found a widening AI Execution Gap between AI deployment plans and employee skillsets, with 71% of construction and engineering organisations expecting at least half their workforce to require retraining or reskilling
The IFS study found that while organisations, particularly in the construction & engineering (C&E) industry, are adopting AI today, they are not fully prepared for its full implementation. This has created what IFS calls the ‘AI Execution Gap.’
The IFS Invisible Revolution Study 2025 surveyed over 1,700 senior decision makers at industrial enterprises globally. The research identifies an ‘Invisible Revolution’: a rapid but under-recognised shift away from consumer productivity-led AI experimentation and toward embedded, operational AI across core business processes.
AI investment is projected to increase significantly over the next 12 months
The Execution Gap occurs when companies move faster into AI adoption than their staff are able to upskill, as is the case in the C&E industry. The study, conducted by 3Gem in May, 2025, found that 91% of C&E organisations plan to increase AI investment in 2025, positioning the sector for accelerated adoption and scale. The sector also expresses lower levels of strategic concern about perceived barriers, in fact their highest concern is losing market share to faster AI adopters (52%).
Around 35% disagree that lack of employee knowledge will limit AI adoption, the highest response across sectors, suggesting a relatively confident workforce outlook despite reskilling needs. Still, 71% expect at least half their workforce will require retraining or reskilling.
“The time is now” to engage with industrial AI
More than half (58%) of C&E firms are creating AI implementation departments and the study clearly finds opportunities available to companies that embrace AI. Across the C&E sector 89% report profitability gains, and firms outperform the cross-industry average in operational efficiency (44%), supply cost reduction (42%), client targeting (37%), pricing efficiency (36%), and lowering project expenditure (36%).
Training and upskilling—supporting employees to thrive in an AI-First environment will be key to ensuring that industrial companies remain relevant, the IFS concluded. The industry is poised for a large leap in maturity moving forward, 64% of organisations are projected to become AI-First within a year.
Kriti Sharma concluded: “We’re experiencing one of the most profound and underestimated shifts in global business. Industrial AI is here and already reshaping how entire industries run, compete, and grow. The time is now.”
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