McKinsey Survey (CONT’D FROM PAGE 30)
Board Converting NEWS INTERNET DIRECTORY
• Limited understanding of which use cases drive value in commercial activities • Inertia or resistance to change • Lack of necessary technical expertise and technology • Hallucination in gen AI • Technology is evolving fast; we are taking a ‘wait and see’ approach • Limited access to data and to a modern data tech stack So where are trends heading in 2026? “Our expectation is that 2026 will be all about at-scale deployment,” Goel said, moving beyond episodic or op- portunistic discoveries in 2025. “Companies will become more bold and will actually start rewiring their functions end to end.” While it didn’t come up in McKinsey’s most recent re- port, AI is also expected to play a bigger role in managing data that has historically been scattered for applications like extended producer responsibility compliance and oth- er tracking for sustainability metrics. “Based on our research, we are seeing some early ev- idence of it, but we see a huge potential for it to go even more,” Goel said. ISM: Manufacturing Sector Expanded In February According to the latest ISM® Manufacturing PMI® Report, economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in February for the second straight month but only the third time in 40 months. The report was issued by Susan Spen- ce, MBA, Chair of the Institute for Supply Management® (ISM®) Manufacturing Business Survey Committee. “The Manufacturing PMI® registered 52.4 percent in February, a 0.2-percentage point decrease compared to the reading of 52.6 in January. The overall economy con- tinued in expansion for the 16th month. (A Manufacturing PMI® above 47.5 percent, over a period of time, generally indicates an expansion of the overall economy.) The New Orders Index expanded for the second straight month af- ter four straight readings in contraction, registering 55.8 percent, down 1.3 percentage points compared to Janu- ary’s figure of 57.1 percent. The February reading of the Production Index (53.5 percent) is 2.4 percentage points lower than January’s reading of 55.9 percent. The Prices Index remained in expansion (or ‘increasing’ territory), reg- istering 70.5 percent, an 11.5-percentage point jump from January’s reading of 59 percent and its highest reading since June 2022 (78.5 percent). The Backlog of Orders Index registered 56.6 percent, up 5 percentage points compared to the 51.6 percent recorded in January and its highest reading since May 2022 (58.7 percent). The Em- ployment Index registered 48.8 percent, up 0.7 percent- age point from January’s figure of 48.1 percent.
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32 March 9, 2026
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