Digital Transformation Projected to Affect $500 Billion of the Global Chemicals and Materials Industry
Digital technologies like sensors, computer vision, analytics, and robotics will be key enablers of the chemicals market’s transition to outcome-based business models over the next 20 years.
The chemicals and materials industry has mostly seen only incremental innovation in recent decades, according to Lux Research, with growth coming primarily from expansion into new geographic markets. The industry is simultaneously facing additional pressure as consumers demand increased personalization, sustainability, and efficiency, which has forced the chemicals and materials industry to innovate its business practices.
“The era of business process-driven innovation is one of tight competition, and not just in the characteristics of the products themselves—chemicals and materials companies are also competing on the customer experience and their ability to keep prices low by improving their operations,” said Katrina Westerhof, director of Research at Lux. “Digital transformation can not only strengthen a company’s position in product, customer experience, and profitability but also unlock new capabilities that completely change the nature of what a chemicals company is and does.”