A new global survey of executives has highlighted key findings as the aerospace industry prepares for Industry 5.0
The Future Ready Skies Study 2025 from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) surveyed over 300 European and North American executives across the aerospace value chain. The results revealed how the industry is planning for the next decade as key trends, including artificial intelligence (AI), digital twins, and advanced air mobility (AAM), dramatically reshape the supply chain.
Mixed progress on aerospace automation
While automation remains a priority, executive predict that 60% of their operations will still require human involvement in the next five to seven years. From a maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) perspective, only 2% of providers believed their service would be autonomous by 2030, while more than half expected to be using predictive analytics and digitally assisted diagnostics. Around a third of MRO experts predict that they will see a return on investment (ROI) in tech within the next three years.
Trust in delegating supply decisions agentic AI remains mixed. While 6% of respondents said they were already deploying agentic AI in this area, 37% said regulatory, compliance, or trust issues prevented them from doing so, and a further 45% said they needed more transparency and control before implementing such a solution.
AI was nevertheless rated as the technology with the greatest potential to reshape aerospace factories by 2035, followed by digital twins, robotics and cobotics, quantum computing, and edge computing.
Commercial AAM set for takeoff
As more AAM projects reach the commercialisation phase, the TCS study illustrated that aerospace executives are committed to developing the sector. 88% of respondents said they had implemented a strategy for engaging the AAM market, with 16% of those executives already engaged in developing projects, and 54% actively building a product or platform for AAM.
The results of the survey emphasised several priorities for the aerospace industry moving forward: achieving a digital transformation, creating the infrastructure for AAM, and building resilient supply chains.
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