Beyond the Machine: How Industrials Are Creating Customer Value with Digital and AI

BCG's analysis of industrial AI commercialization identifies a persistent gap between value creation and value capture: customers actively use AI-enabled solutions but resist paying for them, citing legacy expectations that digital tools should be bundled with equipment purchases, skepticism toward intangibles, and confusion over data ownership versus analytical value. The report finds that the primary barrier is not technical performance but commercial readiness—specifically, legacy sales organizations unequipped to sell SaaS-style offerings and lacking capabilities in pricing, packaging, and customer-specific ROI quantification. BCG prescribes a parallel-track go-to-market framework spanning value proposition design, co-development with anchor customers, value-based pricing, and sales enablement, emphasizing that monetization requires embedding AI into redesigned customer workflows with clear 'moments of truth' rather than leading with the product itself. Case examples from food processing machinery and fleet leasing illustrate that customers who experience AI value through process integration—rather than standalone analytics—convert to paid programs and advocate for additional features.