The newly released Industrial Intelligence Report, unveiled by AVEVA in collaboration with IMD, shines a spotlight on the widening gap between ambition and execution in digital ecosystems.

Based on insights from over 275 leaders across 12 industries worldwide, the report revealed a striking paradox: while 74 per cent of executives identify digital ecosystems as a top strategic priority, only 27 per cent are substantially sharing data with their partners. This disconnect underscores the challenges organisations face in moving from vision to reality, as integration complexity, legacy systems, and weak governance continue to hinder progress.

At its core, the report introduced the concept of industrial intelligence, the organisational capability to integrate operational technology (OT), information technology (IT), and artificial intelligence (AI) into connected, data-driven decision-making across entire ecosystems.

By examining case studies from global leaders such as the Port of Rotterdam and Kwinana in Australia, the findings highlighted both the promise and pitfalls of ecosystem-driven transformation. The message is clear: companies that can overcome barriers to data sharing, governance, and coordination will unlock tangible value and gain a strategic advantage in today’s volatile operating environment.

The report noted that increasingly, organisations are seeking to construct digital ecosystems to confront higher-order business challenges, whether that is innovating faster, navigating supply volatility, or decarbonising complex global operations.

Yet, as the research makes clear, the gap between digital ecosystem ambition and execution remains wide.

According to it, understanding why that gap persists and how organisations are beginning to close it has become a strategic imperative for success in today’s volatile operating environment. It stressed that where ecosystems are working, companies are realising tangible value through harnessing their industrial intelligence. Yet the barriers to success remain challenging, spanning the areas of corporate strategy, governance, and technology.

CEO, AVEVA, Caspar Herzberg, explained: “With this collaboration with IMD, our ambition is not merely to understand the motivations behind the move to digital ecosystems, but to define the frameworks, competencies and leadership practices that will concretely enable companies to transcend silos and build more adaptive, ecosystem-driven operating models.”

On his part, Director of IMD Global Centre for Digital and AI Transformation and Professor of Strategy and Digital, IMD, Michael Wade, said governance, integration and learning matter more right now than algorithms.

“Ecosystems are already delivering operational value. The next phase is about converting that foundation into a strategic advantage through better data sharing, coordination, clearer roles and more deliberate leadership…

Industrial sectors have decades of experience collaborating out of operational necessity. What is changing is that data, AI and connected platforms are turning those collaborations into real-time, intelligence-driven systems,” he said.