Propel Software Survey Reveals Key Insights for Product Operations in Discrete Manufacturing

AI and Value-Chain Product Collaboration Offer Major Business Benefits

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Propel Software, creator of the first product value management (PVM) platform that transforms how businesses create, market, sell, and service products, today released findings from its State of Product Innovation 2025: AI Adoption and Collaboration Trends Across Four Industries research. The survey of 800 U.S. employees across industrial equipment, medical device, high tech and consumer goods industries, commissioned by Propel Software and conducted by Talker Research, found that lack of collaboration and disparate systems are negatively impacting product operations, including sourcing and production decisions, product quality, and speed to market.

The survey found that collaboration is a challenge for all industries and product roles, with 49% of respondents saying their product teams (e.g. engineering, quality, supply chain) don’t effectively collaborate among their own departments. Technology barriers were the main culprit, such as not having a common system or integrated systems that limit or prevent collaboration (55%). If they could address the collaboration issue, 23% believe it would mainly benefit product quality; 21% said it would allow for better production decisions.

Collaboration between product and commercial teams was also an area of concern with 43% of respondents reporting ineffective collaboration between the two key stakeholder groups. As with the product team, technology barriers such as not having a common system or integrated systems that limit or prevent collaboration (58%) were top challenges. If they could address collaboration challenges, respondents believe it would improve product quality and allow products to get to market faster.

Lack of collaboration business impacts

Survey respondents across departments weighed in on top product innovation challenges including development, launch, and sales processes:

• Product Management

• Scoping the time and effort to develop new products or enhancements (24%)
• Managing product changes (22%)
• Coordinating across teams (15%)

• Marketing

• Having easier access to accurate and up-to-date product data (40%)
• Tools to compare product variants or configurations (35%)
• Better collaboration with product and engineering teams (33%)

• Sales

• Quick access to accurate, up-to-date product information (42%)
• Faster responses to customer product questions (42%)
• Improved coordination with product and marketing teams (41%)

Additional role-specific findings:

Quality/Regulatory: The biggest challenges related to system validation or compliance readiness respondents face are maintaining ongoing system compliance after upgrades or changes (34%), managing validation documentation and audit trails (22%) and keeping up with evolving regulations (17%).

Supply Chain: When a key part becomes unavailable or is delayed, respondents currently search for alternatives manually (37%), escalate to the procurement or supplier manager (36%) or use ERP or sourcing platforms to find alternates (28%).

Service/Support: Only 25% say they’re always aware of changes to a product before interaction with customers or assets.

“Siloed departments and disconnected software solutions are no match for today’s fast-paced market demands, and the urgency to innovate has never been greater,” said Ross Meyercord, CEO of Propel Software. “With a secure data foundation and AI embedded into the core of a manufacturer’s data architecture, companies can scale AI confidently to enhance collaboration, drive efficiency and bolster product operations. To minimize risk and maintain control, manufacturers should prioritize cloud-native, SaaS-based solutions that consolidate operations onto a single platform.”

AI presents opportunities and apprehension

Sixty-five percent of respondents are using AI in their product operations and seeing success. However, respondents also reported hesitancy to adopt AI within the systems they use for product-related operations because of data privacy or IP leakage concerns (34%), high cost/low ROI (28%) and a lack of trust in AI recommendations (27%). Other key AI usage statistics reported include:

• Respondents actively using AI and expanding investment: high tech (51%), industrial equipment (32%), consumer goods (26%) and medical devices (24%)
• Piloting or experimenting with AI in limited areas: consumer goods (34%), medical devices (33%), industrial equipment (32%) and high tech (31%)
• Those respondents actively using AI justify their AI investments through productivity gain (52%), ability to achieve a competitive advantage (50%), technology consolidation (35%), ability to reallocate resources (32%), direct expense reduction (28%) and ability to reduce headcount (23%).

The State of Product Innovation 2025: AI Adoption and Collaboration Trends Across Four Industries survey responses were collected from 800 product management, design engineering, quality/regulatory, supply chain, sales, product marketing, service/support, and IT staff members in the industrial equipment, medical devices, high tech, and consumer goods industries in the U.S.

Static and animated survey infographics are available for review here.

About Propel Software

Propel helps product companies grow revenue and increase business value. Our product value management platform connects commercial and product teams to optimize decision making, drive process efficiencies, and engage customers with compelling products and experiences. Propel has a proven track record of improving product quality, speeding time to revenue and profit, and improving customer satisfaction. Recognized as one of America’s fastest growing private companies on the Inc 5000, Propel is also a Deloitte Technology Fast 500 winner, and one of Fortune America’s Most Innovative Companies. Built on Salesforce, Propel drives product success for hyper growth startups, corporate pioneers, and Fortune 500 leaders in the high tech, medtech and consumer goods industries. For more information, visit propelsoftware.com and follow us on LinkedIn.