Smart manufacturing combines AI and cybersecurity
Enterprises are responding to market upheavals and pressure on profit margins by moving towards smart manufacturing, according to the Rockwell 2025 State of Smart Manufacturing Report. As they do, more and more companies are adopting AI for quality control, cybersecurity, and process optimization.
Commenting on the report in Automation.com, Divya Venkataraman from Rockwell said, “Executives who once treated security as a compliance tax now ask how many audit hours disappear, how much downtime is avoided and how quickly AI-ready data streams open up, once networks are hardened. In short: Resilience has become a profit lever.”
The report points to top corporate concerns of inflation, supply chain disruption, and increasingly, cybersecurity. “Cybersecurity, which debuted in the top five of external risks last year, shot up to second place,” it said. “As AI continues to expand, so do the opportunities for cyber attacks. There’s growing awareness of risks to IT/OT networks from the increasing inter-connectivity of digital and physical infrastructure.”
Personnel and Technology
Survey respondents realize the risks to IT/OT networks will require the right combination of skilled people and cutting-edge technology. Workers most in demand are proficient in AI, critical thinking, and problem solving, and they maintain a security-aware mindset.
The technology they work with should mirror those skills, says the report, while at the same time be easy to learn and use, because the rapidly-changing business environment is mirrored in continual evolution of production systems. Workers can most easily get up to speed on software with an intuitive interface, that meets their needs, and is well-supported. This is one of the reasons for the continued success and popularity of Skkynet’s Cogent DataHub software and services in mission-critical systems that need secure access to OT systems for AI. Thousands of customers worldwide use it to pull data from isolated OT networks without adding any cybersecurity risk.
The report highlighted expectations that AI will play a greater role in cybersecurity and supply-chain management, in addition to predictive maintenance to gain overall production improvements. It is expected to become a core technology. “Cybersecurity is second only to quality control in use cases for AI/ML (machine learning), to address vulnerabilities in AI-enabled process automation,” the report said.
Venkataraman identifies six trends in the increasing need for OT cybersecurity:
- Platform – Nearly every company has adopted or will adopt an OT security platform. 64% are running one now, and 32% plan to deploy one within the next 5 years.
- ROI – Cybersecurity pays off. 53% of the respondents view protecting OT assets as a critical investment, and over half of them are adopting security at-scale.
- Secure by design – Security should be automatically included with technology performance specifications. Over 30% of the respondents seek to curb OT risk with built-in security controls.
- A top threat – Cybersecurity is the #2 external threat for manufacturers. Putting cyber threat scenarios into financial terms makes exposure more obvious to company management.
- Cyber skills critical – Knowledge of cyber practices and standards was ranked extremely or very important in hiring decisions by over 80% or survey respondents.
- Cultural hurdles – A reported 25% of employees resist smart manufacturing changes, while 25% of managers show limited cybersecurity awareness. Venkataraman recommends bundling cybersecurity training in with traditional safely training, to create “a culture where safety and security share the same hard hat.”
In addition to Skkynet’s leading edge IT/OT network security technology, we provide the attentive support and training resources our customers need to get up and running quickly. We understand the value of cybersecurity and AI for smart manufacturing, and embed that knowledge in all of our products and services.
