Avnet Insights Survey: Engineers Embracing AI and Confronting Its Challenges

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Artificial intelligence’s (AI) integration in designed products and solutions is here, and engineers are embracing the technology while identifying the challenges it may present. This is according to Avnet’s (Nasdaq: AVT) fifth annual Avnet Insights survey, which has been keeping a pulse on how engineers are responding to the market – and looking ahead – since 2021.

As engineers continue to feel more optimistic overall – 77% said they think market conditions for their design products and solutions are getting somewhat or much better – there is some uncertainty ahead. Looking ahead over the next 12 months, global engineers are unsure whether economic and market conditions will make product development easier (50%) or more difficult (36%). However, one thing is certain: AI’s incorporation into designed products and solutions is here and accelerating.

AI integration is increasing with no clear prioritization area.

Globally, over half of engineers (56%) said they are shipping products to customers with AI incorporated into the designed products and solutions, a 33% increase from last year. Additionally, Avnet found that the top three embedded AI deployments with the highest adoption rates, process automation (42%), predictive maintenance (28%), and fault/anomaly detection (28%), were consistent from last year.

Additionally, engineers are increasingly combining Edge AI and ML models to deliver greater functionality and value in their designed products and solutions, as over half of respondents (57%) said they are prioritizing the incorporation of Edge AI and ML equally, underscoring the importance of both technologies as more look towards multi-modal AI solutions.

“AI has passed the proof-of-concept stage as more engineers continue to work the technology into products being shipped to customers,” said Alex Iuorio, Senior Vice President, Global Supplier Development, Avnet. “However, with any new technology, it takes time to figure out the best use cases for it, and that is what we’re seeing with the latest results from our annual survey. Engineers are making progress and are embracing the new and ever-changing technology so that it can be best integrated across the industry.”

Identifying design and operational challenges.

Avnet found that almost half of surveyed engineers (46%) cited data quality issues as one of the top design challenges when integrating AI into designed products and solutions, as integration with existing tools (38%) and high costs (37%) take the next two spots. These were the same top three challenges as in 2025, indicating that engineers have identified key design challenges and can now work through addressing them.

As for operational challenges, over half of the respondents (54%) cited continuous learning and maintenance as a top challenge, with sustainability (43%) also being top of mind.

“These are not new challenges, but they are now at the forefront because of the very nature of AI,” said Iuorio. “Engineers are working with massive data sets, and the quality of that data dictates how precise the outcomes will be. Identifying these problems is the first step toward solving them, both from the perspective of the engineers and the companies that support them. These challenges are not insurmountable, and here at Avnet, we can work with our customers and suppliers to ensure that their engineers are best supported in confronting them.”

Engineers are also turning to large-language models (LLMs) for technical questions during the design process, citing ChatGPT (69%), Google Gemini (57%), and Microsoft Copilot (50%) as go-to sources. However, they are turning to these tools out of necessity. Only 16% of global engineers said they would prefer to use a publicly available LLM to answer technical questions, but almost half (47%) would prefer to use an LLM trained by engineers outside of their organization, illustrating a gap in available tools.

The future impact of AI is vast, but unclear.

Overall, global engineers are embracing the new technology, but they are still determining its impact and the skills needed for success. When asked what AI trend would have the biggest impact, answers were divided across 14 emerging AI trends. Efficiency (11%) ended up taking the top spot; other trends were top of mind for engineers, including real-time collaboration tools and AI-driven simulation (both at 9%).

In terms of skills needed to use AI effectively, responses were also varied. As with the 2025 survey, AI model optimization (17%, same as last year) was the top-cited skill, with data analysis and interpretation (16%, same as last year) and understanding of AI/ML algorithms (14%, a percentage-point increase from 2025) close behind. As engineers continue to embrace AI, its potential impact is substantial.

Avnet Insights is an annual survey of engineers. The 2026 survey was conducted online and fielded to 1,200 global respondents from October 21 through November 5, 2025. Regionally, respondents were based in the Americas, EMEA, Asia, and Japan.