This white paper explores the evolution of the Fourth Industrial Revolution through the lens of the Global Lighthouse Network’s 153 Lighthouses and examines the transformative manufacturing innovations of the 21 newest Lighthouses.

The paper considers the pivotal inflection point at which machine intelligence attains unprecedented maturity and Lighthouses no longer suffer “pilot purgatory”, the capabilities they have built enabling them to catapult ahead of their competition, even in times of disruption: 85% of Lighthouses reported minimal to no revenue loss during the pandemic.

At this stage, they are focused on overcoming the “Scaling Slump”, strategically extending their abilities to realize impact across entire production networks, value chains and organizations. The most recent Lighthouses are showing meaningful progress across each of six critical “scaling” capabilities.

Further insights are provided in the form of high-impact use cases enabled by advanced AI technologies and a discussion of strategic responses to industry acceleration in the Fourth Industrial Revolution’s second chapter.