Indiana's 2031 Manufacturing Plan Meets the AI Era

The plan is the right plan

In February 2025, Conexus Indiana published Conexus 2031: Empowering Bold Industry Transformation. The plan was developed beginning in May 2023 and grounded in research commissioned from TEConomy Partners and Fourth Economy. Bryce Carpenter, Chief Operating and Strategy Officer, signs the opening letter. Scott Brand, President and COO of Subaru of Indiana Automotive, signs the closing letter as Conexus board president.

The plan defines four focus areas. Develop Connections, Networks and Ecosystems. Maximize Talent. Drive Innovation. Deliver Thought Leadership.

It commits to specific numbers. By 2027, increase Indiana's skilled AML talent by 5,000 and meet the national average for Industry 4.0-enabled workforce share. By 2031, increase skilled talent by 10,000 and exceed the national average. Support 15% of Indiana manufacturers (1,400 companies) to adopt advanced digital technologies by 2031. Generate 100 new partnerships between startups and corporate customers.

The plan also names the gap honestly. AML drives 37% of Indiana's GDP. 840,000 Hoosiers are employed in the sector. The industry contributes $151 billion to the state economy. And Indiana enters the planning window from behind on three measurements that all live in the same paragraph of the plan.

The word that appears twice

Across 40 pages of strategic plan, the word "AI" shows up twice.

Once as a passing reference to "artificial intelligence, workforce shortages and alternative energy sources" listed together as disruptors facing the industry as it looks to 2031.

Once inside the Ivy Tech case study, naming a course launched in late 2024: "new Ivy Tech courses such as Supervisory Leadership for Industry 4.0, Programmable Logic Controls Applied Applications and Introduction to Artificial Intelligence."

That is the entire footprint of artificial intelligence inside the most ambitious AML strategic plan Indiana has produced.

This is not a criticism. The plan was developed beginning May 2023 and published February 2025. In the planning window, "Industry 4.0" was the right operating language. The TEConomy benchmarking work, the Ivy Tech curriculum redesign, the Manufacturing Readiness Grants, the Education Readiness Grants, all sit cleanly inside the I4.0 frame.

By the publication window, the operating language had already started to move.

What changed around the plan

In July 2025, the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership (CICP), Conexus's parent organization, published Indiana's AI Imperative. The piece, by Courtney Kerr, ran on Inside Indiana Business and the CICP site, anchored on a single line worth quoting in full: "Accenture found that 94% of employees are willing to learn AI skills, but only 5% of organizations are training their people at scale."

Conexus's own 2023 AI in Indiana Manufacturing Survey, published May 14, 2024 by Raquel Bahamonde, had already documented that AI adoption in Indiana manufacturing runs behind other Indiana industry sectors.

On April 28, 2026, Governor Mike Braun launched IN AI, the state's initiative to make Indiana the most AI-ready state in the nation. The targets named in the announcement reach 1 million Hoosier employees and engage thousands of employers. CICP is named in the announcement as the implementing partner, running roadshows, virtual sessions, and direct outreach to Indiana businesses.

The week of April 27 through May 1, 2026, every layer of Indiana's AML conversation has been about AI capability, not Industry 4.0 capability. The plan's parent organization, the plan's own prior research, and the state's executive office are all already on the next page.

The translation problem

By 2031, the measurement axis for Indiana manufacturing is unlikely to be "Industry 4.0 enabled." It is more likely to be AI capability.

A maintenance technician using a generative AI tool for diagnostics. A planner running supply-chain scenarios in three minutes instead of three days. A line supervisor whose decisions are supported by real-time vision-system inference. A quality engineer who can audit an AI-generated inspection report and know whether to trust it.

Every one of those workers counts as "Industry 4.0 enabled" today. The plan's 7%-to-national-average target captures them.

The next-layer question is the one Conexus's own data already raised in 2024 ("AI adoption lags other Indiana sectors") and CICP put on the page in 2025 ("94% willing, 5% training at scale"). How do you measure whether that worker can actually use AI well? Whether the planner can validate the scenario the model produced. Whether the line supervisor can intervene when the vision system is wrong. Whether the maintenance technician can recognize a hallucinated diagnosis.

The Industry 4.0 metric tracks a category. It tells you whether the worker is in a tech-enabled role. It does not yet track capability inside the category.

The 7 Levels of AI Proficiency as the measurement layer

Industry 4.0 was the right strategic axis for the 2025 through 2031 plan. AI proficiency is the measurement axis the plan implies but does not yet define.

The 7 Levels of AI Proficiency is a measurement framework that places any worker, team, or organization on a seven-stage scale of AI capability, from first awareness through full operational orchestration. Each stage is anchored in observable behavior. What the worker can do. What they actually produce. What they can teach others. What they can audit. A CIO, a COO, and a plant manager can all reference the same stage number for the same worker.

The free assessment at assess.launchready.ai places an individual in under ten minutes. To be precise about what the instrument is today: a v1 assessment with face validity, with the psychometric validation roadmap published as the work continues. Not yet a fully validated standard, but an early measurement instrument we are building with the science work continuing in parallel.

For an AML company adopting Industry 4.0 in line with the Conexus 2031 plan, the measurement layer answers the question downstream of the technology purchase. How proficient is the workforce that just got the tools?

What this looks like in practice

A medium-sized Indiana fabricator adopts a vision-system QA tool through the Manufacturing Readiness Grants program. They register as "Industry 4.0 enabled" inside the Conexus 2031 metric. The tool is in production. Year one passes.

Year two: a worker can prompt the system. Year three: a worker can audit its outputs. Year four: a worker can teach a new hire to use it. Year five: a worker can identify when the system is wrong and override the output with a correct call.

That is a five-year capability arc. The plan's 2031 metric registers years one through five identically: the company stays in the "Industry 4.0 enabled" column the whole time. The 7 Levels metric distinguishes them.

If Indiana wants to exceed the national Industry 4.0 average by 2031 in a way that actually shows up in productivity and earnings (the second half of the plan's metric set), the leading indicator is the capability arc, not the technology arrival.

A conversation with the people building the plan

Earlier this week on AI Ready Podcast, Bryce Carpenter, who signed the plan's opening letter as Chief Operating and Strategy Officer of Conexus Indiana, was clear that the operating reality is already moving past the 2031 metrics into capability questions. The leaders inside the institutions building this plan are thinking about it. The plan is the spine. The capability layer is the next conversation.

That same intuition shows up in CICP's "AI Imperative" piece. It shows up in Conexus's own 2024 survey writeup. It shows up in the Governor's IN AI announcement.

The plan defines the right gap. What comes next is defining how Indiana measures whether the gap is actually closing.

The week that was

This is the fifth article in a five-day arc on Indiana manufacturing and AI proficiency:

• Monday opened with the 9,700 manufacturers and 85,000-job gap that sits under the whole conversation.
• Tuesday looked at the 32-point disagreement between CIOs and COOs reading the same workforce.
• Wednesday made the case that university partnerships will not close the proficiency gap on their own; the closure happens inside the company.
• Thursday tracked how Governor Braun's IN AI announcement named the goal and left the measurement layer to operators.
• Today: the Conexus 2031 plan is the right plan. The measurement axis it implies is the work for the next 5 years.

The thread across all five: the AI workforce gap inside Indiana manufacturing shows up as a measurement gap before it shows up anywhere else. Hiring, university partnerships, tools rollouts, all sit downstream of one question: how do you score capability inside the workforce you have?

The plan defines the right targets. The 7 Levels of AI Proficiency is the measurement layer underneath. Take the assessment. Find your level. See where your team sits. Make the 2031 plan's targets actually measurable in your company.

Related reading: The 7 Levels of AI Proficiency. The manifesto that sits underneath the framework.

Harrison Painter

AI Business Strategist. Founder, LaunchReady.ai and AI Law Tracker.

Harrison helps teams build AI systems that cut cost and grow revenue. Nearly 20 years of business experience. 2.8M YouTube views. Founder of LaunchReady.ai and the 7 Levels of AI framework.

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