Artificial intelligence (AI) is now becoming ubiquitous in engineered products, but engineers are struggling with data, maintenance and the lack of AI tools to meet their needs, according to new insights from electronic distributor Avnet, Inc.
In its fifth annual Avnet Insights, 56% of engineers that were surveyed said they have integrated AI into designed products, a 33% increase from last year.
However, this incorporation is not without challenges as 46% of engineers listed data quality issues as one of their top design issues. Another 54% of respondents stated that continuous learning and maintenance is also a major challenge in integrating AI into products.
“Early results from our latest Avnet Insights survey show that worldwide, significantly more products are being shipped with AI incorporated than last year,” said Alex Iuorio, senior VP of global supplier development at Avnet. “AI adoption is growing quickly, and engineers are using it — but they’re still learning. There are challenges ahead, and it’s too soon to know which skills will matter most. Still, as engineers keep applying AI, the potential for growth remains strong.”
Avent found that among the embedded AI deployments these have the highest adoption rates:
- Process automation at 42%
- Predictive maintenance at 28%
- Fault/anomaly detection at 28%
This follows the 2024 survey that predicted these would be the largest segments incorporating AI.
Multi-modal rising
According to the Avnet survey, multi-modal AI adoption is accelerating with engineers combining edge AI and machine learning models. About 57% of respondents said they are prioritizing the incorporation of edge AI and machine learning (ML) equally.
This underscores the importance of both technologies, Avnet said.
Multi-modal describes using more than one type of AI in one product or using a type of AI that can perform more than one type of inference.
Additionally, engineers in the Avnet survey said they are turning to large-language models (LLMs) and are turning to tools like Chat GPT, Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot to help answer technical questions.
This also shows that there is a need for more appropriate trained tools for engineers incorporating AI into products.
The full Avnet Insights survey will be released in January 2026.
