The capability is already here

ARM Hub CEO Professor Cori Stewart FTSE spoke with IndustrialDay for its recent infrastructure feature. Her assessment of Australian manufacturing came down to one key point: the foundations exist, the job before us now is to scale.

Manufacturers have moved past experimentation. They are increasingly asking what AI can do across the whole business, rather than inside one application at a time; connecting logistics, purchasing and production so the data works together.

"You can move between those silos and get those rarefied benefits that you weren't able to do before," Cori said.

That shift is bringing IT and operational technology closer, with enterprise AI capability being applied directly in production environments.

Security remains the sensible hesitation, but manufacturers are now working through that challenge.

"Manufacturers are now realising that they can manage that cybersecurity risk," Cori said. "There's heaps of opportunity to move within safe, secure and trusted systems, and reap the benefits that other sectors are getting quite readily."

The return compounds beyond the individual project. Companies that start early build internal skills and ready their workforce for a more automated operating environment. That capability stays with the business.

On robotics, Australia already produces world-class technology in mining, field robotics, drones and defence. Autonomous mining trucks are proof the engineering talent is here. The opportunity is pointing that expertise at our own factory floors.

The same logic applies to research. Australia innovates well. Cori's focus is on what happens next.

"You want to build the companies that then actually hire the people that generate great value."

That is the work. ARM Hub partners with around 60 companies at any one time, and regularly sees Australian businesses solving genuinely complex engineering problems, with accelerator programs opening international markets and supply chains.

"There's heaps of opportunity to move within safe, secure and trusted systems." Professor Cori Stewart, ARM Hub