Seven in ten manufacturers still rely on manual processes for compliance with accelerating regulatory and customer requirements, according to a survey from Assent Inc.
While manufacturers are highly engaged with product compliance and sustainability than ever, the survey found that their tools and data haven’t kept pace, Ontario-based manufacturing data network provider Assent said in its “2026 Product Compliance & Sustainability Trend Study.”
Three in four respondents (75%) said they are hands-on with those programs daily, yet 70% still rely on spreadsheets to manage product compliance, based on a survey of 131 manufacturing specialists conducted in partnership with Pforzheim University in Germany.
Respondents across automotive, electronics, and other industries report the same manual, reactive approach to compliance, with 57% pointing to incomplete data and data integrity as their greatest challenge in meeting compliance and sustainability reporting requirements. At the same time, artificial intelligence and automation rank as the single biggest opportunity they see ahead. Yet only 10% of respondents have actively incorporated AI into their processes.
That data gap is a risk that impacts the entire business. For example, emerging obligations such as Digital Product Passports and carbon reporting increasingly draw on the same supplier data. This information already feeds material compliance declarations, so a single weak supplier response creates risk in multiple domains at once. More than half (55%) of respondents in the survey cite data quality and timeliness as the reason supply chain carbon data doesn’t meet their standards.
“This research confirms what we hear from manufacturers every day: They know AI and automation are the next step for product compliance and sustainability, but incomplete data is holding them back. The path forward isn’t more point solutions; it’s a connected foundation of part, product, and supplier data that can be augmented with AI capabilities. Together, they empower teams to achieve compliance and sustainability goals,” said Catherine Cormier, Chief Innovation Officer at Assent.
In Assent ‘s view, the fix isn’t more software, but a better data foundation for the software to run on. Companies that have already connected their product, part, and supplier data are far more optimistic about AI: 72% of companies with integrated systems see AI as an opportunity, compared to 48% of those without integrated systems.
