Rewiring automotive
product development
An introduction to the Capgemini Aerospace & Defense Leadership Forum, 2026
The automotive AI race will not be won by having more agents.
It will be won by turning AI output into trusted engineering decisions, faster.
Our survey of 800 execs shows:
greater gains among AI value leaders
already use agentic AI in engineering
Only
say their AI governance is fully mature
Organizations increasingly expect AI to drive innovation, not just productivity.
Within three years:
expect to use agentic AI in software engineering
expect to use AI across supporting activities
expect AI to spur product innovation and differentiation
expect AI to drive transformation
AI is already delivering measurable value.
High value realizers report:
Their advantage does not come from using more AI. It comes from stronger business cases, better lifecycle-critical data and operating practices that free engineers to focus on higher-value work.
faster development cycles
greater engineering productivity
reduction in time-to-market
Agentic AI capable of executing tasks, orchestrating workflows, and supporting decisions is further advanced than many assume.
OEMs and suppliers already:
The next phase is not simply assistance for individual engineers, but agents that coordinate work, information and decisions across the product-development lifecycle.
use it in engineering processes and tasks
actively pilot it
use Gen AI in engineering processes and tasks
While organizations believe AI can improve productivity and decision making, trust falls as AI moves closer to the safety-critical engineering artefact.
Reported confidence in agentic AI:
for upstream research and concept work
for design
for testing and validation
for development
Although 69% restrict AI access and 68% require human approval for high-impact decisions, only 41% can trace the data, assumptions and rationale behind an agent-influenced outcome. Just 22% escalate decisions according to their potential impact rather than a model’s confidence score.
Automotive organizations already collect extensive information from vehicles in service:
But only
Updates remain concentrated in security and navigation; only 36% deliver over-the-air updates that change driving functions.
capture connected-vehicle telemetry
draw insights from over-the-air interactions
can turn post-launch data into engineering action
Rewiring automotive product development explores how connected engineering knowledge, modern ways of working, accountable ownership, and closed-loop feedback drive speed, trust, and adaptability at scale, including questions such as:
Why governance is lagging despite growing investment
What are the opportunities when it comes to hardware
Why growing dependencies give sovereignty greater significance
What steps leaders should prioritize to pull ahead in the race.
Download the report
