What does 3D printing look like in 2036? To find out, we asked dozens of industry leaders, CEOs, founders, CTOs, and analysts from across the additive manufacturing ecosystem to look beyond the immediate horizon and share their longer-term forecasts. The result is a panoramic view of an industry in transition.
The picture that emerges is striking not for its boldness, but for its convergence. Across companies of different sizes, geographies, and specialisms, a clear consensus is taking shape: the era of 3D printing as a novelty technology is drawing to a close. What replaces it is something far more consequential: additive manufacturing as standard industrial infrastructure, embedded in certified production workflows such as CNC machining or injection molding today.
Students of industrial history will recognise this pattern. Lessons from history (capital deployment/destruction, consolidation, institutional capture, and infrastructure formation), whether via railroads in the mid-19th century, aviation in the first half of the subsequent century, or semiconductors in the 1960s, all suggest an observable direction of travel of technology filtering cycles. More recently, the CNC machining sector provides lessons on how the 3D industry may develop.
If we attempt to drive the car using the rear-view mirror, then at least having a map of the territory may prove useful. Here, four phases are apparent: discovery and technical novelty, speculative expansion/venture proliferation, institutional filtering and consolidation, and finally, infrastructure invisibility. Today, we are in phase three: institutional filtering and consolidation.
But the road there is neither simple nor guaranteed. The experts gathered here point to a set of interlocking challenges (qualification and certification, materials development, cost reduction, software maturity, and workforce readiness) that will determine how quickly and how broadly the technology reaches its potential. Meanwhile, forces outside the industry itself, from geopolitical disruption and defense spending to AI breakthroughs and sustainability mandates, are reshaping the landscape in real time.
What follows is an unfiltered look at where the industry’s leading voices believe additive manufacturing is headed. And what it will take to get there.
Read more in our annual executive survey:
The Future of 3D Printing: 2026 Edition
3D Printing Trends: Executive Summary
Isabelle Hachette, CEO, INTERSPECTRAL
Over the next decade, additive manufacturing will transition into qualified, large-scale industrial production, driven by process-based certification. Success would depend on the ability to control variability through data. Production environments will rely on hybrid manufacturing workflows, where additive, subtractive, and post-processing steps are digitally connected and managed as a single system. A continuous, auditable digital thread could be mandatory across design, build, inspection, and finishing. AI adoption will be pragmatic and regulated: federated learning models will enable cross-site and cross-machine intelligence sharing without compromising IP or data sovereignty, while supporting defect prediction, drift detection, and faster qualification. The market will converge toward vendor-agnostic manufacturing intelligence platforms, as hardware becomes commoditized. Cybersecurity, on-prem or sovereign deployments, and trust in data will become decisive buying criteria.
Chris Wang, Product Manager, Resin 3D Printers, Creality / PioCreat
Over the next 5–10 years, the 3D printing industry will undergo a profound evolution, shifting from pure technological innovation to becoming a core part of industrial infrastructure. This transformation can be observed on two levels:
Structural Shifts in the Industry From prototyping to industrial-grade production: 3D printing will increasingly serve as a foundational manufacturing technology, on par with CNC machining and injection molding, participating widely in end-product production rather than being limited to prototyping or small-batch runs. From isolated applications to integrated digital manufacturing: 3D printing will be deeply embedded within larger-scale digital manufacturing systems. AI capabilities will play a critical role in design, production scheduling, process control, and quality management, enabling end-to-end smart manufacturing. From single-device sales to full lifecycle services: Future competition will center not just on machine performance, but on the broader ecosystem—covering devices, materials, software, post-processing, and data services. Comprehensive lifecycle solutions and continuous operational support will become core value drivers.
Key Drivers of Industrial Upgrades and Expanded Applications
Advanced materials and multifunctional integration: High-performance, intelligent, and multifunctional materials (e.g., self-healing or functionally integrated composites) will achieve scaled adoption, enabling 3D-printed products with added value beyond manufacturability.
Deep integration of AI and 3D printing: AI will enhance design generation, process monitoring, and quality inspection, significantly increasing the value created by 3D printing. For example, in photopolymerization workflows, AI-assisted design, cloud data management, one-click printing, and AI quality control are creating a more efficient and user-friendly manufacturing ecosystem.
Green and sustainable manufacturing as a standard: With global sustainability policies and circular economy initiatives, material efficiency, recycling systems, and energy optimization will become fundamental requirements. 3D printing’s inherent ability to reduce material waste will be further leveraged, such as in our ongoing work on granular material recycling solutions. In summary, over the next decade, 3D printing will evolve from an advanced manufacturing technology into a key infrastructure for the digital manufacturing era, providing more efficient, flexible, and sustainable production methods while playing a central role in global industrial upgrading.
Maxime Delmée, CEO and Founder, AM 4 AM
The rise of China as a world leader in additive manufacturing system producers was clearly noticeable and will keep growing with large systems for more serial production. The global increase in defense spending could also be seen as an opportunity for additive manufacturing, as it is becoming increasingly strategic.
Xiang Zhou, CEO, Revopoint Global Inc.
The 3D scanning industry is shifting from a separate “capture tool” to an integrated hardware-software system, enabling a complete digital loop by connecting with design and measurement software. Future advances will strengthen the synergy between 3D scanning and printing, boosting efficiency across reverse engineering and product inspection in industries such as aerospace, healthcare, and automotive. This evolution will position 3D vision technology as the core for sensing and coordination in smart manufacturing.
Stefanie Brickwede, Managing Director, Mobility/Medical goes Additive (MGA)
Additive manufacturing is constantly evolving and will see leaps in usability thanks to a significant reduction in the cost of machinery. This trend is already evident in Asian machinery today. In ten years’ time, there will be mass production of 3D-printed parts that are no longer recognisable as such. Additive manufacturing will thus no longer be a niche production, but will continue to conquer the market as a so-called enabling technology. With improved AI language models, it will be possible to quickly print out ideas in the form of printed prototypes. This will certainly not apply to dimensionally accurate, technologically complex parts, but it will definitely apply to mass applications and design articles. In ten years, additive manufacturing will be an integral part of the school curriculum, introducing children to simple production possibilities. This new generation of digital manufacturing natives will revolutionise production with completely new ideas.
Kevin Cedrone, PhD, Co-founder and Head of R&D, Lumafield
Over the next 5 to 10 years, 3D printing will become a core component of the broader manufacturing stack, operating as an indispensable part of efficient production beyond prototyping and small batch production. As 3D printing expands, it will become more reliable, and product designers will be able to increase their use of generative AI design tools that leverage exotic materials or geometries. CT will be used by 3D printing companies to develop their products and processes, helping ensure that they meet all critical safety and performance requirements. We will see the rise of “Digital Manufacturing Packages” where a part’s design, its optimized print parameters, and its AI-driven CT inspection report are bundled into a single verification record. This shift will enable components to be manufactured with greater confidence so we are no longer hoping for good prints, but measuring, understanding, and controlling production with evidence. The net effect will be a shorter time to getting good parts, more examples of getting it right on the first try, and knowing they are right with definitive inspection data.
Trent Esser, Co-Founder and CEO, Printerior
Over the next five to ten years, the growth of the 3D printing industry will be driven less by novelty and more by standardization and economics. As materials become better standardized—with consistent specifications, repeatable testing, and trusted qualification pathways—additive manufacturing will become significantly easier for engineers to trust and manufacturers to adopt at scale. In parallel, maturing supply chains and greater vertical integration will steadily reduce material and production costs, improving the overall business case. This combination of technical consistency and economic clarity will shorten qualification cycles, increase customer education and confidence, and reduce the friction that has historically slowed adoption. The result will be broader, more reliable uses of additive manufacturing across multiple industries. Rather than being applied primarily to one-off or experimental parts, additive will increasingly be used for real products in real production environments, where repeatability, predictability, and long-term performance matter as much as innovation itself.
Mahdi Jamshid, Director Market Intelligence, Wohlers Associates, powered by ASTM International
Geopolitical pressures will sharpen AM’s value proposition around supply chain resilience, particularly for defense and rapid-response scenarios. This will drive clear market segmentation: Western vendors dominating high-criticality and national security applications, while Chinese manufacturers serve commodity and price-sensitive applications. New names will emerge from consolidations, mergers, and bankruptcies. Surviving legacy players will be far more specialized, each owning distinct niches rather than competing broadly. AM construction will see meaningful adoption as corporate players like Walmart validate the approach and geopolitical needs align with point-of-use capabilities. AI will settle into specific, proven roles rather than remaining a buzzword. Defense requirements will catalyze formation of dedicated AM manufacturing hubs even in Western markets, creating regional production ecosystems that didn’t exist before. As a result, over the next decade, AM will become less distinct as an “industry” and more embedded as a normal production capability inside broader manufacturing systems.
Rich Garrity, Chief Business Unit Officer, Stratasys
Most of us are aware of Industry 4.0 – the digital evolution of manufacturing using the Internet of Things, automation, and analytics to drive efficiency, agility, and innovation. The next step is Industry 5.0, which prioritizes a more human-centric approach to automated, resilient production. This shift is already taking place, and it will continue to gather pace over the longer term. Industry 5.0 will transform additive manufacturing into an essential pillar of human-centric and resilient digital production. For example, digital twins will enable manufacturers to use additive manufacturing to reproduce fixtures, jigs, dental appliances, and production parts consistently across global sites without retooling. Automation across pre-production, build preparation, and post-processing will reduce labor intensity and accelerate throughput. Stratasys’ workforce development programs (including NOCTI-approved FDM certification) prepare the next generation of engineers for additive-first decision making. This kind of capability and training already exists, and as Industry 5.0 becomes embraced by a growing number of organizations, so will additive cement its role as a foundational component of modern manufacturing ecosystems.
Dayton Horvath, Director, Emerging Technology and Investments, AMT-The Association For Manufacturing Technology
The technology providers will have a similarly reduced presence and focus in the public eye relative to application companies, as is the case today in the semiconductor world. Companies applying the equipment, like NVIDIA and INTEL, are household names applying technology developed by semiconductor equipment manufacturers, companies like ASML, Applied Materials, and others.
Sascha Schwarz, CTO, TUM Venture Labs
Within the next decade, additive manufacturing will move from novel to normal to essential. It will become a foundational pillar of the factory of the future, enabling economically viable mass customization, high product variety, and distributed production, all orchestrated through AI-driven digital factories. Artificial Capable Intelligence (ACI) will enhance the entire AM value chain, from process optimization and predictive quality control to generative design, autonomous production planning, and fully digitally orchestrated factories. Design for Additive Manufacturing will reach a point of no return: AI-based design optimization and automation will render many traditional design constraints obsolete, just as additive manufacturing has already done in audiology and dentistry. Conventional CAD tools will either adapt to this paradigm, or lose relevance. As a result, the first autonomous AM gigafactories will emerge in Europe: shared, software-defined production platforms capable of manufacturing entirely different products for different companies at any time, with minimal human intervention. The most disruptive impact, however, will arise from the convergence of AI, AM, and Synthetic Biology. This triad will establish new market benchmarks in personalized medicine, animal-free tissue models, biomimetic systems, and novel food materials. It will fundamentally reshape how we design, test, and produce biological products, putting us in the era of living factories. Technologies such as bioprinting and biofabrication will play a central role in materializing AI-designed proteins and biological systems into physical reality. This finally empowers humanity to fully harness nature’s intelligence!
Rob Lent, COO & Co-Founder, Vision Miner
I see the next five to ten years in additive manufacturing going in two distinct directions. First, on the consumer side, we’ll see everyday people printing parts at home that they would’ve previously had to buy at the store. I expect companies like IKEA, for example, to start trimming down the number of physical components they need to ship and instead offer digital files for customers to print certain pieces themselves—especially for things like shelving or small hardware. For consumers, it’s going to become normal to print toys, trinkets, home goods, furniture components, organizers, utilities for the home and office, and all kinds of useful items. And this will be supported by a wide range of simple, easy-to-use machines that just about anyone can operate without much learning curve. On the industrial side, I see additive becoming even more deeply integrated as a standard manufacturing process. It’s already huge for jigs, fixtures, and tooling, and that area will continue to expand. On top of that, we’re going to see many more 3D-printed end-use parts. We’re already seeing this with SLS, SLA, and even FDM in more niche applications, but it’s going to become far more common for general, everyday products as well.
Glynn Fletcher, President, EOS North America
The success of Additive Manufacturing relies on our willingness to challenge conventional manufacturing methods. Our industry has a responsibility to advocate for a new system, one that not only produces efficiently but also supports long-term sustainability instead of depletion and harm. That said, we have to be pragmatic. The AM industry must shift its focus from showcasing how innovative we are to highlighting how efficient and effective our systems have become. For AM to thrive in mainstream manufacturing, it’s crucial to move beyond the “cool and clever” image. Customers quickly lose interest if costs and performance aren’t optimized. At EOS, we’re concentrating on two priorities: reducing the cost per part (CPP) and increasing overall equipment efficiency (OEE). These metrics are most important to our customers, and real progress requires designing and building truly industrialized systems. This includes leveraging artificial intelligence in all aspects of our business. The integration of automation, machine learning, closed-loop feedback, in-process quality controls, and predictive maintenance will all be transformative as a consequence.
Julien Barthes, CEO, 3Deus Dynamics SAS
In 5 to 10 years, the real value of 3D printing will lie in certified materials and multifunctional performance, not in machines. Aerospace and defense will lead this shift toward function-driven design and digitally qualified manufacturing.
Harshil Goel, Founder and CEO, Dyndrite Corporation
Machines will operate like machine tools. The last 30 years of technical issues will be nonexistent.
Alexandre d’Orsetti, CEO, Sculpteo
Reinforced Consolidation
The trend of consolidation is expected to continue, with leading 3D printing companies merging or forming strategic alliances. Larger players will increasingly dominate the market, focusing on delivering integrated solutions, advanced materials, and high-capacity industrial systems, while smaller companies will either specialize or be acquired.
Consumer Market Goes Plug & Play
For the consumer segment, 3D printing will become more accessible, moving even more toward simple, plug-and-play systems. These solutions will continue to lower the barrier to entry, enabling more people to adopt 3D printing without extensive technical expertise.
Industrialization of Serial Production
Industrial adoption will keep growing, with 3D printing increasingly complementing conventional manufacturing. Its role in serial production will expand, particularly in sectors requiring complex geometries, low-volume production, or customized parts. The ultimate scale of this growth will depend on technological innovations that emerge over the next decade, such as faster printing, new materials, and automation.
Emergence of Sector-Specific Applications
We will see the rise of highly specialized, custom 3D printing applications tailored to specific industries. These may include advanced aerospace components, medical implants, or bespoke industrial tools, where custom technologies and materials are designed for particular end-use requirements.
AI
As in all industries, AI will contribute to the improvement and growth of 3D printing applications. In the consumer market, AI is set to transform file generation—not just for aesthetic models, but by reaching its full potential through integration with DFAM (Design for Additive Manufacturing), functional analysis, and mechanical considerations.
Dan Fernback, Vice President, JuggerBot 3D
Projection 003: Projection Demand for Adaptive Manufacturing Systems; Emphasis on production applications will drive demand for more tailored AM systems, shifting the LFAM segment of the greater AM industry toward purpose-built modern manufacturing solutions. This transition catalyses enhanced system functionality (advanced thermal management, material handling, integrated control) to enable adaptive manufacturing models. In this, LFAM systems will be designed to adjust to the needs of the application, material, or process workflow rather than forcing production requirements to conform to fixed/finite capabilities.
Josh Dugdale, Head of AMUK, Additive Manufacturing UK
Long-term, additive manufacturing will move from a specialist capability to a core element of advanced manufacturing. Its long-term impact will be less about replacing conventional processes and more about reshaping how products are designed, qualified, and supplied. AM will increasingly sit within hybrid manufacturing models, enabling more localised, resilient and responsive supply chains, particularly in sectors where performance, complexity and speed outweigh pure unit cost.
Craig Monk, Owner, 3D Print Monkey/Liquid models 3D
Looking five to ten years out, I think 3D printing becomes far more “infrastructure-like”. The headline won’t just be faster machines. It’ll be the boring, important stuff: automated calibration, closed-loop process control, and stronger standards so output is measurable and repeatable. That’s what unlocks wider adoption in engineering, dental, healthcare, and education, because you can qualify a process and trust it across multiple sites. Hardware will keep improving, but margins will keep tightening, so the value shifts to software, materials, and services that keep fleets running with minimal downtime. On the resin side, we’ll see a broader spread of application-specific materials and better post-processing integration, which will push resin further into functional parts and small-batch production. Overall, additive won’t replace conventional manufacturing, but it will take a bigger share of the jobs where customisation, lead time, and complexity matter most.
Bhaskar Dutta, President & COO, DM3D Technology
Over the next 5-10 years, I expect Additive Manufacturing to become part of mainstream manufacturing. However, in order for this to happen, two things need to take place first; A. Development of new applications to drive the demand and B. Advancement of the process throughput as well as expansion of material portfolio for AM. These two are complementary. As the throughput increases and/or the material portfolio expands, AM becomes more cost competitive, and that allows its acceptance for many newer applications. The goal is to enhance AM capabilities to a level that allows the production of hundreds of thousands of parts using hundreds of types of engineering materials.
Jason Bao, VP, LDO MOTORS
AI and Materials to combine to push the 3D edge.
Martin Bondéus, Founder, CEO, Bondtech AB
Over the next decade, additive manufacturing will evolve into a mainstream industrial production technology. Multimaterial printing will become standard, enabling more functional and integrated parts. Artificial intelligence will be deeply embedded in design and production, driving automation, optimization, and reliability. At the same time, the industry will consolidate around fewer, more integrated platforms, while additive manufacturing supports more distributed and resilient manufacturing models.
Sasha Bruml, Managing Director, 3D People
In the next 5 to 10 years, I expect 3D printing to become “invisible.” By that, I mean the novelty of the process will finally be eclipsed by the utility of the product. We are moving toward a decade where the industry becomes “dull” in the best possible way: repeatable, standardized, and perfectly integrated into the wider manufacturing ecosystem. At 3D People, we founded the company to bridge the gap between complex technology and the end-user, and by 2035, the “digital hand-holding” we’ve championed since 2017 will be the absolute industry standard.
Nick Allen, CEO, 3DPRINTUK
As with last year, I believe we are going to see more and more larger volume projects heading in the direction of AM over traditional manufacturing. We said this last year, and it was proven correct – I see no slowing of this in the years to come.
Max Funkner, Founder, 3DWithUs
As we have already witnessed, investor confidence and substantial funding are flowing into Chinese personal 3D printing companies, and the next five to ten years will likely reveal the full impact of these investments. This may translate into faster innovation cycles. The scale of current investment suggests that long-term structural shifts in the personal 3D printing market are inevitable. As a similar shift has already happened in the 3D scanning industry, where industrial-grade scanners have gradually become affordable for prosumers, and we are now seeing comparable trends in 3D printing, with industrial technologies such as SLS moving toward more compact, desktop-scale systems. AI is also expected to play a much more practical role in everyday 3D printing workflows. In particular, slicer software will become significantly easier to use, with AI-driven systems actively preventing common user errors. For the personal market, automated error avoidance, smarter material handling, and predictive adjustments are likely to become the norm rather than premium features, lowering the barrier to reliable printing.
Dipl.eng. Stefan Ritt, Founder and CEO, AM-3D printing market integration
We will see further consolidation of the industry on a global scale for sure as many similar and smaller production companies will not be able to survive in the market independently. The US and German dominance from the early years will shift to Asia due to the pricing and innovation cycle speed. As the expectation that a few traditional global large tooling companies will dominate the market has not proven to become reality. More likely we also here will see the dominance of Asia growing slow but steady. Major stakes of players like eg. DMGMORI and NIKON SLM are in Japanese hands and DOOSAN just opened a EU-office in Germany last year. Various additional Chinese manufacturers have established their own offices in Germany and are enlarging their manufacturing capacities and factories massively. The medical device and implant printing market will become a strong market segment with steady use in hospitals serving an aging society. Also watching the battle to dominate the access to raw material supply for these technologies only has just started. This will become a more vital and important part of our industry particularly for rare metals powder supply for defense applications, eg. Niobium, Tungsten and others.
Tobias Rittig, Ph.D., CTO, Additive Appearance
In the long run, I see the full-colour market finally getting more competition which will open up the closed ecosystems relying on their razor-blade business models. Similar to the FFF market, the big players have to deal with competitors from China undercutting them in price and offering material-freedom. This will open up a large number of new end-use applications that have been prohibited by material prices in the past.
Henrik Lund-Nielsen, Founder & General Manager, COBOD International A/S
Looking ahead to 2030–35, 3D construction printing (3DCP) has come a long way in recent years. What began as a hyped technology fabricating small, one off residential projects has now matured into a method used for large scale housing developments with hundreds of units, apartment blocks up to seven stories, and commercial projects spanning several thousand square meters, including offices, warehouses, and data centers. Infrastructure type structures — such as wind turbine towers, water tanks, biogas tanks, oil tanks, coastal protection barriers, and marine life improvement structures — are also now regularly produced using 3D printing. The true potential of 3DCP has been measured against conventional construction methods and found to be superior for many applications. In addition, printers are no longer limited to extruding concrete. They can now smooth surfaces, apply paint, cast and shotcrete concrete, install insulation, and even function as a lift for easier installation of windows, doors, and roofs. We have not yet reached fully automated construction, but we may now be approaching something that could reasonably be described as 50% automated.
Martin Jewell, CTO, Rapid Fusion
The real transformation over the next decade will be the shift from standalone machines to interconnected manufacturing networks. We’re moving towards a future where additive manufacturing systems become integrated supply chain assets—intelligent nodes in a distributed production network. The vision is dynamic job routing: the right printer, for the right job, at the right location, holding the right material. This requires unprecedented machine-to-machine communication and centralised orchestration that simply doesn’t exist at scale today. Quality assurance will be revolutionised by the digital thread. Every part will carry a comprehensive ‘passport’—rich metadata capturing everything from material batch traceability to in-process sensor data, environmental conditions, and machine state. This isn’t just documentation; it’s verifiable proof of provenance that regulators and customers will increasingly demand. Perhaps most significantly, we’ll see the emergence of sophisticated G-code post-processing and optimisation layers. The goal is platform-agnostic manufacturing—generating toolpaths that can be intelligently adapted across different machine architectures to produce consistent, uniform parts regardless of which printer in the network executes the job. This abstraction layer will be essential for true manufacturing flexibility and resilience.
Karl Forbes, Chief Technology Officer, Xaar
The most significant shift for 3D printing and additive manufacturing will be its transition to becoming a widely accepted manufacturing technique. A key enabler of this will be the continued development of inkjet technologies to meet the challenges of new materials. As additive manufacturing expands into more demanding applications, there will be growing requirements to jet higher‑viscosity, more highly loaded, and more functional materials. Advances in fluid-handling control will be critical to enabling reliable deposition of these materials at an industrial scale, unlocking manufacturing applications across a wide variety of sectors. Over the same period, we expect a continued reduction in system and operating costs, driven by improved reliability, higher throughput, and economies of scale. As inkjet‑based additive systems mature, cost per part will fall to a point where mass‑market adoption becomes viable, not only in industry but also across education, small businesses, and decentralised production models. In the future, 3D printing will no longer be the exception but a routine manufacturing tool, and inkjet’s ability to combine precision, scalability, and material versatility positions it as a key technology for the next phase of additive manufacturing’s evolution.
Joshua Pearce, Thompson Chair of Innovation, Professor, Western University
In the long term, the proliferation of high-quality open-source 3D printable designs will make the value of AM technology skyrocket and the prospects for sustainable distributed manufacturing to drive a circular economy a reality.
Gerald Mitteramskogler, CEO, Incus GmbH
Looking 5–10 years ahead, I expect additive manufacturing to be fully embedded as a core production technology across high-reliability industries and select consumer markets. By 2030, the market is poised to surpass $40 billion, driven by more robust, dependable printing systems, expanded portfolios of engineering-grade materials, and tightly integrated, automated workflows. As material costs fall and processes become faster and more scalable, 3D printing will achieve cost parity with injection molding—even for large production runs. I also anticipate the emergence of truly open, interoperable machine ecosystems, significant advances in multi-material printing, and the rise of additively manufactured electronics as key growth catalysts. Together, these shifts will transform AM from a specialist capability into a foundational pillar of modern industrial production.
José Luis Sánchez, Managing Director, MELTIO
Over the next five to ten years, additive manufacturing will evolve from a specialized technology into a standard industrial capability, fully integrated into global manufacturing ecosystems, machine shops, and supply chains. This evolution will be driven by several structural shifts: Metal additive manufacturing will become a natural component of production strategies, particularly for repair, customization, lightweight structures, and complex geometries that are inefficient or impossible to produce conventionally. The sector will undergo further consolidation, with fewer but stronger and more vertically integrated players offering complete technology platforms spanning hardware, software, materials, and services. Digital manufacturing cells will become widespread, combining AM, robotics, automation, and AI-driven process control, enabling distributed and flexible production models. Sustainability will be a decisive factor, with material efficiency, energy optimization, and circular manufacturing clearly favoring additive processes. Additive manufacturing will expand beyond part production to become a key pillar of industrial resilience, enabling faster responses to geopolitical disruption, supply shortages, and critical infrastructure demands. In the long term, additive manufacturing will not replace traditional manufacturing, but it will fundamentally transform it. The most successful companies will be those that understand 3D printing not as an isolated technology, but as a strategic industrial tool.
Kris Binon, Managing Director, AMIS
Over the next decade, the value in additive manufacturing will shift toward intelligent digital infrastructures: systems that connect quoting, build prep, production, compliance, and traceability into a single automated flow. As service bureaus mature and move to true serial production, the winning technologies will be those that combine automation with user‑controlled transparency—allowing companies to scale while keeping process knowledge in their hands. Software will ultimately define the economics of the AM factory.
Markus May, GM, 3Faktur
Over the next five to ten years, consolidation across all layers of the additive manufacturing ecosystem—hardware, materials, software, and services—will be inevitable. Growth will increasingly come from serial production shifting to additive manufacturing, driven by lower costs through scale, higher utilization, and mature processes, as well as deeper application know-how that enables highly optimized, ‘form-follows-function’ designs which reduce cost while increasing product value.
Youssef Beshay, CEO, Apex Additive Technologies
The next 5–10 years will see additive manufacturing settle into its role as normal, industrial manufacturing in clearly defined lanes rather than a universal solution. Value will concentrate in end-use parts, qualified production cells, and integrated services, with metal AM—particularly LPBF—maturing around repeatable, transferable processes instead of ever-larger machines. Qualification will increasingly be driven by process control and data, not exhaustive part-by-part testing, while software and digital infrastructure become the real competitive battleground. Hybrid additive–subtractive workflows will be the default for production metals, and distributed manufacturing will grow mainly where sovereignty, defence, and supply-chain resilience justify the governance overhead. In short, AM’s long-term success won’t be measured by hype or machine specs, but by how quietly and reliably it integrates into established manufacturing ecosystems.
Dave Gaylord, VP of Product and Technology, MatterHackers
Looking 5 to 10 years down the road, we will see print speeds finally match the pace of traditional production, but the real tipping point will be the aggressive reduction in cost per part, making additive a financially undeniable alternative to traditional tooling for mass volume. This economic efficiency is being unlocked by a massive expansion in material catalogs—specifically, engineering materials tuned to serve specific applications and verticals—which necessitates a new tier of high-touch service for enterprise accounts looking to dive deeply into Digital Manufacturing. As we unlock this combination of speed, specialized chemistry, and unit-cost viability, the industry will scale like never before, and at MatterHackers, we will be focused on helping customers be at the bleeding edge of what is possible with Digital Manufacturing.
Jose Angel Castano Rodriguez, Founder & CEO, Laboratorios 3D
Over the next 5–10 years, additive manufacturing will mature from a technology category into a distributed production capability. The winners will be those who treat 3D printing as part of an industrial system—validated materials, stable processes, quality control, and traceability—rather than as a standalone machine purchase. We will see a clearer separation between consumer experimentation and professional production. In industry, AM will grow where it brings measurable advantages: low-volume high-mix manufacturing, complex geometries that reduce assembly, and localized production where supply chains are fragile or expensive. This will push adoption in sectors that demand repeatability and certification, not just novelty. Materials will become a key strategic differentiator. The future will not be defined by “more printers,” but by better material ecosystems: standardized formulations, tighter tolerances, and application-specific solutions that minimize failure rates and make outcomes predictable. This also includes surface engineering—adhesion, build surfaces, and post-processing chemistry—because reliability is the real barrier to scale. Software and automation will increasingly close the gap between design intent and manufactured reality. Over time, more print settings, quality controls, and workflow decisions will be automated, enabling AM to be deployed with less operator expertise. This is critical if AM is to be used widely outside specialist teams. Finally, sustainability will evolve from claims to accountability. The industry will be pressured to quantify energy use, waste, recyclability, and total lifecycle impact. Companies that can prove lower total cost and lower environmental cost—without sacrificing performance—will be best positioned as AM becomes a mainstream manufacturing option.
Sarah Jordan, CEO, Skuld LLC
I don’t think there will be a 3D printing industry per se. It will just be manufacturing and will be so adopted that it will just be one other set of manufacturing tools. People will have 3D printers next to lathes and mills and grinders and it won’t be anything special.
The AI workflows will be developed to the point that anyone can use the equipment. Maybe it will go directly from speaking an idea to seeing an image to pressing print. Then out the other end comes the fully processed (heat treat, NDT, etc. included) part.
[The future of 3D printing will also see] widespread use of materials that don’t currently even exist in the market.
Juan Segurola, CEO, 3Dresyns by Resyner Technologies
Over the next 5–10 years, I expect 3D printing to evolve from a ‘printing method’ into a true materials-enabled manufacturing platform — where the winners are defined by chemistry, functionality, and validated application performance rather than by hardware alone. First, the industry will increasingly be shaped by specialty photopolymers engineered for end-use parts, including ultra-safe and biocompatible systems designed for demanding biomedical and industrial environments. This includes the acceleration of customizable, application-specific resin platforms—from rigid high-temperature grades to flexible and elastomeric biocompatible materials—so that additive manufacturing can meet real functional requirements, not just geometric ones.
Second, additive will expand into multi-material and functional manufacturing, particularly in electronics and smart devices, where conductive and electronic-ready resin systems enable printed antennas, RFID/NFC, flexible circuitry, and other embedded functionalities. In the longer term, this will shift the perception of 3D printing from ‘structures’ to ‘systems’ — parts that are simultaneously mechanical, electrical, and functional.
Third, I foresee major growth in hybrid manufacturing ecosystems, where additive integrates seamlessly with established production routes — for example through water-soluble sacrificial molds, removable supports, and debinding-friendly binder systems that connect 3D printing with injection molding and ceramic/metal processing. This will be a key path to industrial scale because it lets additive deliver complexity while conventional processes deliver throughput.
Finally, sustainability will become a non-negotiable driver. In 5–10 years, materials will be expected to be not only high-performance, but also safer by design and more environmentally responsible, including higher bio-content systems and greener chemistries that reduce hazards and waste.
In short: the long-term future of 3D printing is not simply ‘more printers’ — it’s more engineered materials, more functional integration, and more industrially compatible workflows, enabling additive manufacturing to move decisively into mainstream production.
Maxence Bourjol, Head of Sales, 3DCeram Sinto
Over the next decade, the adoption of additive manufacturing will increasingly be driven by a deeper understanding of the technology in relation to specific applications. As use cases become clearer, adoption will progress in a more structured way, with both the consolidation of established sectors—such as aerospace, defence and biomedical—and the gradual emergence of new applications. This progressive alignment between technology capabilities and application requirements will support the broader democratisation of additive manufacturing. As production volumes increase, economies of scale will naturally follow, leading to reductions in both machine costs and consumable costs. Ultimately, these combined effects will enable additive manufacturing to reach increasingly competitive production cost targets, reinforcing its position as a viable industrial manufacturing solution rather than a niche technology.
Harry Wang, Executive Vice President, Uniontech
Over the next 5–10 years, additive manufacturing will increasingly become a core component of global manufacturing infrastructure, integrated alongside traditional processes rather than positioned as a disruptive alternative. The industry will mature toward greater stability, standardization, and predictable industrial value. China-based additive manufacturing manufacturers will be central to this transition. Their strengths in engineering execution, supply-chain integration, and scalable manufacturing will help turn additive technologies into dependable, repeatable production tools. As the market becomes more multipolar, these companies will increasingly influence how 3D printing is industrialized and deployed across regions and industries. Over the next decade, additive manufacturing will succeed where it becomes reliable, repeatable, and economically clear within everyday production.
Frank Roberts, CEO, 6K Additive
The long-term trajectory of additive manufacturing is defined by industrial scaling. We are moving toward larger, high-speed systems capable of printing massive components or high-volume batches in a single build. Naturally, this shift necessitates a robust and high-capacity material supply chain. Simultaneously, we are seeing the fruition of years of R&D as refractory metals successfully transition from laboratory research into serial production. To ensure domestic competitiveness—particularly in balancing costs against global markets like China—the industry must embrace a new model of radical collaboration. We see the path forward through a “unified ecosystem” where machine OEMs, material producers, software developers, and contract manufacturers work in lockstep to drive down the cost per part. Finally, Artificial Intelligence is the ultimate force multiplier. AI will revolutionize every facet of the workflow, from generative design and material property discovery to full-scale factory automation. It isn’t just a tool; it is the new foundation of modern manufacturing.
Vincenzo Belletti, Director of EU affairs, CECIMO – European Association of Manufacturing Technologies
The additive manufacturing sector needs to move decisively beyond the innovation and experimentation era and enter a phase of large-scale implementation and deployment. By 2026, the technology itself is no longer the question. The priority will be repeatable industrial use, stronger market uptake, and the multiplication of successful business cases. This will drive a clear shift toward reliability, quality assurance, productivity, automation, and integration into existing manufacturing systems, rather than isolated pilot projects. Industrial users are increasingly demanding predictable performance, certified processes, and total cost transparency. Without these, adoption will plateau. In the near term, additive manufacturing will therefore be deployed primarily where it delivers clear and immediate value: spare parts, tooling, lightweight components, and complex high-performance parts. A stronger focus on these “winner” applications will be critical to positioning AM as a competitive, industrial production option that is fully embedded in European factories.
Ethan (Yuanming) Hu, Founder and CEO, Meshy AI
Over the next 5–10 years, 3D printing will increasingly blur the line between manufacturing and the creator economy. AI-assisted 3D creation will enable new roles and businesses built around designing, customizing, and distributing physical products without traditional manufacturing infrastructure. Similar to how drones created new operator professions, 3D printing will support a new generation of creators who combine AI tools, design intuition, and localized production. Manufacturing will also become more decentralized and asynchronous. Rather than relying on centralized factories and long supply chains, production will shift toward distributed printing networks where digital 3D assets function as transferable “production instructions,” fulfilled at the nearest available print location. This model reduces logistics friction, shortens lead times, and enables faster, more flexible response to demand. Beyond functional manufacturing, 3D printing will expand into emotional and experiential consumer use cases. As AI makes large-scale customization feasible, users will increasingly create objects for self-expression, identity, and storytelling—not just utility. In this future, 3D printing evolves from a production method into a creative medium, supporting personalized, meaningful physical experiences alongside traditional industrial applications.
Joseph Crabtree, CEO & Founder, Additive Manufacturing Technologies (AMT PostPro)
Data platforms win, not hardware makers. The most valuable companies will own the production intelligence layer—aggregating data across machines, materials, and applications to deliver predictive quality and automated optimisation. Hardware commoditises; software compounds. Distributed manufacturing finally arrives. As systems become reliable and remotely operable, dynamic production networks will route work based on capacity and logistics. Defence, aerospace MRO, and medical lead—industries where resilience beats unit cost. Material breakthroughs unlock new markets. The current palette is narrow. High-performance polymers, multi-material systems, and ceramics will open applications currently impossible. Proprietary material-process combinations will command premium margins. Metal AM scales in select niches. Aerospace, medical implants, and tooling mature into substantial markets once quality assurance matches conventional certification standards. AM becomes a process option, not an industry. Traditional manufacturers absorb AM as one capability among many. The standalone service bureau model compresses. Sustainability shifts from marketing to procurement requirement. Carbon accounting and supply chain scrutiny make AM’s waste reduction and localisation advantages commercially relevant. For AMT: The opportunity is becoming the intelligence layer that sits across hardware platforms—agnostic to the printer but essential to the outcome. That’s where long-term value accrues.
Johannes Homa, CEO, Lithoz
We think that in the long term the market consolidation will result in a clear split between industrial grade systems offering top performance in terms of material quality, precisely scalable repeatability, robustness and high innovation potential and cheap systems to produce simpler parts where perfect precision does not play a major role. As a consequence, we predict most “us too” mid-range approaches to exit the market. On the one hand, critical industries such as aerospace and aviation, defense, semiconductors, or MedTech will always challenge AM suppliers with extremely demanding quality regulations that can only be met by implementing the highest possible standards to all elements of an AM system. On the other hand, only a robust and perfectly balanced production system backed by premium customer support and training will be able to push the technological limits further. Circling back to ceramics in particular, our high-performance materials will be used for more and more applications, as the never-ending search for more efficiency at some point will always lead to the superior qualities of ultra-precise 3D-printed applications with intricate designs. Particularly to be watched in that respect are 3D-printed bone replacements made from bioceramics, a very promising growth area within our portfolio.
Dr. Jason B. Jones, Co-founder & CEO, Hybrid Manufacturing Technologies
We will see 3D printing leading the charge towards self-aware autonomous manufacturing, guided by human input. Other “conventional” manufacturing processes will follow in its footsteps with “what you see is what you get” usability. This in turn will make those technologies more accessible and may prove to be 3D printing’s biggest contribution to manufacturing.
Franco Cevolini, CEO and CTO, CRP Technology
Over the next 5–10 years, additive manufacturing will become less of a ‘separate technology’ and more of a standard manufacturing option within engineered supply chains. The industry’s growth will be led by applications where AM provides measurable advantage: weight reduction, functional integration, rapid iteration, and performance in low-to-medium volumes—especially when product cycles are short and customization is valuable. For polymer AM and SLS, the big evolution will be materials and certification pathways catching up with the ambition of designers. We will see broader adoption of high-performance composite materials and an increasing emphasis on qualification frameworks that make end-use adoption faster and more reliable. In sectors like aerospace and defense, the conversation will shift from ‘Can we print it?’ to ‘Can we qualify it, reproduce it, and maintain it across time and locations?’ I also expect a deeper convergence between AM and traditional manufacturing. The best results will come from hybrid strategies: SLS used for complex geometries and lightweight structures, combined with machining or other finishing steps where tolerances and interfaces are critical. This hybrid mindset will push AM toward a more mature industrial identity—where a printed part is judged like any other engineered component, by performance, robustness, and total cost. Finally, the role of service bureaus will become even more strategic. As materials become more specialized and applications more demanding, customers will rely on partners who can provide the full chain: design support, process expertise, material selection, validation data, and repeatable production. In that scenario, SLS with advanced composites—like Windform—will continue to expand into high-value applications where performance is the real differentiator.
Ryan Liu, CEO, FibreSeek
The most important advances won’t come from faster motion systems alone, but from materials, process control, and design philosophies that allow printed parts to be trusted in safety-critical and structural roles. We expect composite and multi-material systems to play a central role, enabling designers to place strength only where it’s needed—something subtractive manufacturing cannot do efficiently. This will fundamentally change how engineers think about weight, cost, and performance. At the same time, small-scale production will become economically viable. Individual engineers, startups, and niche manufacturers will be able to design, validate, and produce end-use parts without relying on global supply chains or large factories. In the long run, the winners in this industry won’t be defined by who prints the fastest benchy, but by who enables reliable, repeatable, and accountable manufacturing outcomes.
Justin Michaud, CEO, REM Surface Engineering
I foresee continued consolidation among metal AM equipment OEMs over the next 5–10 years. Chinese machines will likely become prevalent in any and all areas that do not have government-led restrictions regarding their use. Finally, I anticipate a reemergence of independent ‘printing shops’ as the metal AM industry matures and more applications are proven viable.
Len Pannett, CEO, Supercharg3d Management Services Ltd
In the next 5–10 years, the convergence of AI and additive manufacturing will fundamentally decouple intellectual property from physical geography, though the transition will be gated by the rigorous reality of physical-to-digital validation. Generative AI will significantly lower the barrier to “up-cycling” legacy parts, but the “digitization bottleneck” will shift toward the high-stakes engineering required for reverse engineering and CAD generation. In capital-intensive sectors like maritime, we expect a cautious but steady migration as firms move beyond simple scans toward certified digital twins that account for material fatigue and structural integrity—turning physical warehouses into high-fidelity, auditable digital libraries. This evolution will trigger a strategic rationalization of the OEM landscape. Manufacturers must navigate a new reality where they either pivot to IP-licensing and “Certification-as-a-Service” or face obsolescence as agile digital ecosystems master the complexities of decentralized production. For global logistics leaders like Wrist, the impact is a move toward Edge Manufacturing, where port-side “micro-factories” produce verified parts on-demand. While physical reverse engineering remains a hurdle, the long-term trend is toward a resilient, verifiable digital flow that minimizes “dead capital” and replaces massive physical stock with secure, decentralized digital assets.
Dr. Wilderich Heising, Partner & Director, Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
Over the next 5–10 years, additive manufacturing will develop steadily but unevenly, with clear progress in some sectors and continued caution in others. The current consolidation phase will likely result in a smaller set of stronger, better-capitalized players that can offer integrated hardware–software–materials solutions and support industrial users through the full lifecycle. Rather than broad-based exponential growth, we should expect selective, application-driven adoption wherever AM can clearly outperform conventional methods on part performance, lead time, or risk – and a more modest role in areas where costs, qualification effort, or integration constraints remain high. Partnerships will be critical to making this next stage work in practice. No single company can solve materials, machines, software, standards, and application development alone. Collaborative platforms such as the AM \| Navigator Consortium, where leading players join forces to industrialize AM, are an indication of how the ecosystem will need to operate: common methods and data for part selection, shared qualification approaches, and coordinated efforts to build robust business cases for end users. More broadly, OEMs, tier suppliers, service bureaus, and software providers will need to move from transactional relationships to structured partnership models to unlock new applications at scale. In parallel, AM will be used more deliberately as a design and supply chain tool – but in a targeted way. Distributed production, digital inventories, and on-demand printing near the point of use will find their place in spare parts, low-volume and high-complexity components, and resilience-critical applications such as Aerospace & Defense. Digital and AI tools (e.g., generative design, automated build preparation, process monitoring) will help make these use cases more repeatable and economical, but they will not remove the need for disciplined industrialization and careful selection of where AM really adds value. Ultimately, AM will earn its place in the manufacturing toolkit not because it is new, but because it demonstrably creates business value – in margin, resilience, and growth – wherever the right applications are found and scaled
Andreas Hartmann, CEO/CTO, Solukon
If I had to choose one word to describe the long-term trend in the 3D printing and depowdering industry, I would say: specialization. This effect was already evident at this year’s Formnext. Instead of exhibiting new systems, materials, and software at every corner of the trade show floor, exhibitors focused on specific applications and their optimization.
For our field, powder removal, this means that we will align ourselves even more closely with the individual needs of the industries/applications. For example, a customer in the space industry who removes powder from copper rocket parts has completely different powder removal requirements than a customer in the medical industry. And: Another long-term trend is certainly that depowdering is being considered as a matter of course in the production process and is already being planned in the component design phase. We are ideally positioned here with our unique SPR Pathfinder software, which can check whether the component can be depowdered as soon as the CAD file of the part is ready.
Tony Lock, Director, Duet3D
The core, longer-term trend we see in the material extrusion part of the wider AM landscape is the growth of hybrid processes. This will be enabled by multi-material, multi-process machines which allow, for example FFF plastic, liquids, PnP, subtractive, continuous fibre etc, all within a single “print”.
Jose Camero, Founder & CBDO, Triditive
My vision for the next decade of Additive Manufacturing is centered on the concept of the ‘autonomous factory.’ We are moving rapidly towards an era where production floors are defined by intelligence rather than manual labor. Scalability will no longer be about adding more operators, but about deploying smarter, self-correcting automated fleets. We are building a future where AM is not just a method of making parts, but a predictable, high-volume industrial process that rivals traditional manufacturing in reliability and cost.
Danit Peleg, Founder 3D Printing Fashion LAB Researcher and Designer, Danit Peleg 3D
I believe 3D printing will be pushed forward by three things: AI, robotics, and better materials. AI will move from design to manufacture, with using robotic, lights-out workflows that make printing, post-processing, and quality control will be one smooth production line. New computing power, including quantum computing, will start to matter for solving the hard problems faster like cracking complex structures for materials: more bio-based and circular feedstocks that are stable, printable, and made for real products, not just prototypes.
Andre Wegner, CEO, Authentise
I haven’t talked like this in years but five to ten years out, AM looks more like a distributed, data-driven manufacturing network than a set of machines. Geopolitics will accelerate it: Ukraine, supply-chain shocks, and rising protectionism are pushing governments and OEMs to localize production and qualify parts closer to the point of need. Fully autonomous cells will be standard, and software will understand intent well enough to redesign, requalify, and reroute work instantly. Most spares won’t ship; they’ll be printed where they’re used. The real shift is economic: AM stops competing on unit cost and starts winning on resilience and agility. That’s when it becomes infrastructure, not a niche
Ainhoa Amaro Garcia, COO, EVOCONS (Evolution Construction System SL)
Over the next decade, construction will leap from isolated pilots to full-scale digital industrialisation, where 3D concrete printing (3DCP) will become a standard method rather than a technological curiosity. On-site, multifunctional robots such as Evoconstructor® will evolve from “special machines” to standard equipment, capable of printing, dosing, mixing, lifting, and finishing within a single data-driven workflow. This shift addresses the labour shortage in an industry facing a global housing crisis and the need to accelerate processes, reduce costs and timelines in a context marked by volatility and sustained inflation. Moreover, it represents a commitment to safer mechanisms in one of the least digitalised sectors with the highest accident rates, where automation can significantly reduce occupational risks. On-site manufacturing and the use of local raw materials will become standard practices, reducing supply chains, emissions, and dependence on global markets. This will strengthen local economies and ensure compliance with increasingly strict environmental regulations. At the same time, full digitalisation of construction sites will become a reality: dynamic 3D models, complete traceability, and predictive analytics will guarantee control, transparency, and regulatory compliance. Construction 5.0 will integrate AI, robotics, and machine learning to anticipate problems, optimise resources, and ensure technology serves both people and the planet. Sustainability will be non-negotiable. Circular processes, material reuse, and environmental certifications will become standard requirements for accessing tenders and green financing. Technical codes and international standards will normalise 3D printing in building construction, paving the way for faster, safer, and more efficient projects. Examples of this vision are already underway: La Goleta Project (Gran Canaria): The first tender in Europe using 3D concrete printing (3DCP), developed with Evoconstructor® technology. This project sets a historic precedent by incorporating multifunctional robotics and digital traceability in social housing, proving that industrialised construction with 3D printing is no longer a future concept but a reality that enables scalability and compliance with UNE-EN ISO/ASTM 52939 standards. In summary, within 5–10 years, 3D concrete printing (3DCP) will be widely implemented in large-scale, traceable buildings, and projects like La Goleta are the prelude to a decade where robotics and digitalisation will transform the way we build.
Read the full series:
Article One: A framework of Additive Manufacturing Institutional Filters.
Article Two: Near-term expert forecasts and 3D printing industry trends 2026.
Article Three: The End of 3D Printing and the industrialization of additive manufacturing.
Article Four: Executive Survey on Sentiment and Economic Outlook, additive manufacturing market outlook 2026.
Article Five: Fault Lines: Application of the Institutional Filters Model, additive manufacturing industry analysis.
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