A new global study of 300 engineering leaders reveals a widening gap between AI expectation and execution in engineering workflows, and the lessons from top performers who are closing it.
Engineering leaders overwhelmingly believe in AI’s potential to transform design and simulation workflows.
But most teams are still struggling to turn that vision into reality.
Our new State of Engineering AI 2025 report surveyed leaders across the US and Europe to uncover where progress is happening—and where barriers remain. The findings highlight a growing gap between AI expectations and execution, and present clear lessons for engineering leaders ready to move forward.
93% of engineering leaders expect AI to deliver productivity gains, with 30% anticipating very high gains. But just 3% report achieving that level of impact today.
Organizations using cloud-native simulation tools are 3x more likely to have mature AI programs and 6x more likely to have clean, centralized data—critical for scaling AI. They are also twice as confident in achieving AI goals within the next 12 months.
300 engineering leaders surveyed. Only 3% are achieving very high AI gains at scale. Discover what top performers are doing differently.
55% cite siloed data and 42% cite legacy desktop CAE tools as major blockers—highlighting a foundational infrastructure gap across many organizations.
42% of CTOs perceive resistance to AI adoption within technical teams, but only 25% of simulation and engineering leads report such resistance. This suggests many are underestimating the readiness and hunger to accelerate AI adoption within teams.
Engineering leaders expect AI to fuel greater design innovation (54%), engineering productivity (51%), and faster time to market (47%)—with reduced costs ranking lowest on the list of expected benefits.
Explore the findings from the State of Engineering AI 2025 in our webinar, featuring SimScale and NVIDIA leaders sharing insights on how Engineering AI is transforming product design and innovation.
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