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The Engineering Intelligence Index

Written by SPREAD Team | 17.11.2025

75% of engineers now spend at least a third of their time on admin, coordination, and chasing information across siloed systems rather than on development work.

The Engineering Intelligence Index, based on survey data from engineering leaders across manufacturing industries in the US and Europe, examines how teams are navigating the growing complexity of software-defined products:

  • Engineers cite complexity overload as their primary obstacle
  • Engineering loops are consuming more capacity than new development work
  • Leaders consistently identify lack of cross-system visibility as the root cause of execution breakdowns
  • The capability engineers rank highest is a single, contextualized view of product data

The full report covers current challenges, costs, technology and operational needs, AI readiness, and emerging practices in engineering.