Smart Manufacturing April 2025: Manufacturing USA Update

In January 2017, the ARM Institute was created as the robotics, automation and artificial intelligence (AI) Department of Defense Manufacturing Innovation Institute and part of the Manufacturing USA network. The ARM Institute has three key pillars: ecosystem expertise, technical solutions and workforce development.

Eight years—and hundreds of projects and initiatives later—the institute has more than 450 member organizations collaborating on new ways to achieve a future where people and robots work together to solve the nation’s greatest challenges.

With partnerships across industry, government and academia, a core function of the ARM Institute is to strengthen U.S. competitiveness through innovations in advanced manufacturing technology, particularly robotics and AI. As importantly, the institute aims to prepare people to work alongside advanced technologies.

“Over the past decade the U.S. has been focused on regaining our global competitiveness and bringing manufacturing back to the U.S.,” says Lisa Masciantonio, chief workforce officer at the ARM Institute. “Robotics and AI are critical to helping U.S. manufacturers compete with low-cost labor markets and reducing dependency on offshore production.”

Masciantonio explains that while smart automation has enabled reshoring efforts, bringing some manufacturing jobs back to the U.S., the sector continues to grapple with a labor shortage. “The U.S. currently has over 800,000 open manufacturing jobs,” she says, citing the challenges of too few people moving into manufacturing jobs and a misalignment in workers’ abilities versus the necessary skills required to perform the jobs.

“With these labor shortages and skills gaps, particularly in skilled trades, automation has helped manufacturers maintain production levels despite fewer available workers,” she says, calling out robotics as critical in filling gaps where labor shortages persist, such as in welding and assembly.

According to Masciantonio, the ARM Institute recognizes and reinforces that technology adoption and an increase in the use of robotics in U.S. manufacturing are only successful if the workforce is prepared with the necessary skills.

“Industry 4.0 is changing manufacturing and automation. Robotics and AI are at the heart of this exciting change,” she adds, saying that as manufacturing environments change rapidly, the workforce needs to quickly adapt.

“A critical element of automation is that manufacturers can’t use all of their investment dollars to improve technology and not focus on the workforce simultaneously,” Masciantonio reasons. “As programs change or modernize, they must look at the readiness of their existing workforce to determine how to upskill those on staff currently and, if not them, how to hire in the right people for the new tasks at hand.”

As the skills gap and labor shortage grow across the manufacturing sector, the aging workforce and retirements are making that gap even broader. The potential of millions of unfulfilled manufacturing jobs creates a threat to the nation’s security and resiliency, Masciantonio points out. To combat this threat, the ARM Institute takes a comprehensive approach to preparing people to work with robotics, automation, AI and other advanced technologies.

“Our extensive ecosystem collaborates to identify, develop and set the direction for the current and future competencies and job definitions required for robotics roles in manufacturing,” Masciantonio says. “Through our national workforce resource, RoboticsCareer.org, we demystify robotics careers in manufacturing, make training and jobs more accessible, endorse the nation’s most effective robotics training programs and connect manufacturers with individuals interested in manufacturing careers.”

And careers in robotics pay well. According to 2025 data from Comparably Inc., the average robotics technician, which is considered an entry-level position focused on day-to-day maintenance on the shop floor, makes about $70,000 per year. The average robotics specialist, serving as a subject matter expert on robotic systems, makes more than $100,000 per year. And advanced robotics integrators, who are experts in automation and robotics, and have the highest level of training and experience, can expect to earn an average of $150,000 per year.

Technology innovation related to Industry 4.0 is fastpaced and evolving. Part of the ARM Institute’s mission is to make robotics and AI more accessible to all U.S. manufacturers. New technology creates more opportunities for smaller manufacturers to reap rewards of automation. Smaller, collaborative robots (cobots) can be used across a range of applications, and software tools allow easy reconfiguration of parts and greater visibility into the entire production process. However, Masciantonio says the traditional manufacturing labor force is not prepared for continual skills training.

“Workers and manufacturers alike struggle to keep pace with technological changes,” she says, adding that most small and medium-sized manufacturers have limited time, budget and in-house support to prepare their workers for change. “It is challenging for most manufacturers to take the workforce away from their duties to take upskilling training, and they often do not have the financial resources to pay for training for their staff.”

As manufacturers plan robotics implementation into their processes, Masciantonio offers a few key considerations. “Manufacturers should start with a structured business case analysis to ensure automation is the right step for their particular manufacturing environment,” she advises. “They want to determine the best path forward and to ensure they are making a cost-effective investment.”

To that end, the ARM Institute specializes in the de-risking of automation decisions. Through its Robotics Manufacturing Hub, institute experts guide manufacturers through a customized automation assessment process that includes consultation on the applications that will benefit the most from robotics and automation, analysis on ROI potential and, of course, risk mitigation.

“Without question, generative AI has the potential to change the manufacturing sector as it evolves, matures and has greater uptake,” says Masciantonio, who views generative AI as a tool to help manufacturers better leverage data to make key business decisions and improve critical operations. “Generative AI can benefit many facets of the manufacturing process such as product design, rapid production, predictive maintenance, prototyping and innovation.”

A type of artificial intelligence used to create new content based on models trained on text, visual and audio data, generative AI is effective for producing personalized training materials, interactive learning modules and even virtual environments for employees to practice complex tasks.

“Much of the benefit of generative AI will come with the collection of quality, unbiased data to train the models, and many manufacturers fall short today in this area. This is one of the key reasons why the ARM Institute has received funding to create datasets and tools for industrial AI with a focus on robotics.”

The promise of generative AI to enhance training effectiveness and accessibility with an ability to tailor content to individual needs and skill levels is an important area of investment and exploration. Masciantonio says the ARM Institute is developing an AI Data Foundry Program, with a goal of creating a national resource to collect and aggregate data for robots working in manufacturing settings.

“The ARM Institute is pursuing this work in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University’s Manufacturing Futures Institute and our members through federal funding,” she adds, reinforcing the importance of ecosystem collaboration in making a tangible and significant impact on the future of manufacturing competitiveness.

Technology advancements play a key role in helping manufacturers address productivity, resiliency and the skills gap. As manufacturers face challenges with recruiting and retaining qualified workers, they must continue the transition toward automation. In that effort, workforce development is vital—and training and upskilling are not perks. They are imperatives.

The ARM Institute has many capabilities in support of education and workforce development needs. Those capabilities and solutions are available via a national resource, RoboticsCareer. org. The site serves as a centralized source offering key tools for education seekers, job hunters, education providers and manufacturing employers to find and share robotics-related training and career opportunities.

Robotics Competency Framework: Identifies the necessary advanced manufacturing robotic competencies.

Robotics Career Pathways: Explains advanced manufacturing robotic career pathways.

Asset Map of Robotics-Specific Educational Programs: Serves as a searchable database for specific pathways from nearly 17,000 training programs—from online credentials to PhDs— mapping to defined robotics competencies.

ARM Program Endorsement: Highlights the nation’s most effective training programs.

SkillsMatch: Connects job seekers with jobs opportunities that align with their goals and skills.

User Profiles: Personalized accounts allow users to highlight their career and competency progression.