The global automotive industry is at a turning point. Technology is changing faster than most organisations can keep up with, and the pressure to innovate — across engineering, manufacturing, supply chains, and customer experience — is intensifying. The KPMG Global Tech Report 2026: Automotive, which captures insights from 258 technology leaders across 22 countries representing OEMs, truck manufacturers, Tier 1 suppliers, new technology component suppliers, and mobility solution providers, paints a picture of an industry that is confident about growth but honest about the challenges of getting there.
The headline number is encouraging: 88% of respondents are confident in revenue growth over the next 24 months. But the more revealing finding sits alongside it — 86% agree that technology plans quickly become outdated. The pace of change is the defining challenge. The industry knows where it wants to go. The difficulty is moving fast enough to get there before the destination shifts again.
Technology ambition is high. Seventy-four percent of respondents agree that advanced technology will be the primary driver of competitive advantage, and 82% feel the need to take more risks on technology. Yet 53% point to poor legacy processes as a frequent cause of poor return on investment. The gap between ambition and execution is real, and it is being felt across the industry.
The report’s central finding is that automotive organisations are trying to move from isolated technology pilots to platform-scale execution. That means adopting standardised architectures, enforcing consistent development pathways, and industrialising the processes that govern how AI models are built, deployed, and maintained. It also means taking data governance seriously — not as a compliance exercise, but as a performance enabler. Companies with strong data foundations are better positioned to deploy AI quickly and at scale. Those without them are discovering that the investment in AI yields limited returns when the underlying data infrastructure is fragmented or unreliable.
Governance, the report finds, is increasingly being treated not as a constraint on innovation but as an accelerator of it. Organisations with clear governance frameworks around cybersecurity, responsible AI, and software update controls are moving faster — not slower — because they have the confidence to act decisively. The industry is also placing greater emphasis on data sovereignty and local digital capability, particularly as geopolitical uncertainty creates new risks around cross-border data flows and technology dependencies.
The report breaks down technology responses by segment, revealing different priorities across the industry. Among OEM vehicle manufacturers, 67% plan to enhance data sovereignty across their partnership ecosystems — a direct response to geopolitical risk and the sensitivity of vehicle and customer data. Truck manufacturers are focused on talent, with 61% wanting to hire more onshore technology specialists. Tier 1 suppliers are improving data flows and technology infrastructure to support better scenario planning and decision-making agility, with 41% citing this as a priority. New technology component suppliers are watching costs carefully, with 47% looking to tighten technology spending amid concerns that geopolitical risks may push up input costs. Mobility solution providers are investing in innovation capacity, with 40% planning to increase the number of innovation centre of excellence teams.
For India, the report’s findings carry particular weight. The country’s automotive sector is navigating rapid technology disruption alongside evolving customer expectations and the transition toward connected, software-enabled, and intelligent vehicles. Mr. Jeffry Jacob, Partner and National Sector Leader for Automotive at KPMG in India, said competitiveness will increasingly depend on how effectively organisations scale AI, data, and digital technologies across their operations — moving beyond pilots and into engineering, manufacturing, supply chains, and customer-facing functions. Strong data foundations, clear governance, and disciplined execution, he said, will be essential to converting technology investments into measurable value.
The message from the KPMG report is consistent across geographies and segments: the Intelligent Age is not approaching — it is here. The organisations that will lead it are not necessarily those with the most advanced technology ambitions, but those that can combine technological ambition with the operational discipline to execute at scale, consistently, and with measurable results.