This year's study builds on the very first survey in 2019 and analyzes how companies are shaping their digital future against the backdrop of multiple crises. It includes insights from 593 company leaders - 386 from Germany - across manufacturing-heavy sectors.
For years, we have assessed the degree of digitalization in several German and global manufacturing industries as part of an expert survey. The resulting Digital Maturity Index (DMI) – jointly developed by Deloitte and the University of Duisburg-Essen – marks the starting point for successful digital transformation. It considers four holistic dimensions
These dimensions provide a comprehensive view of digital transformation, covering more than 90 different operational and strategic parameters. Based on these parameters we have defined six different digital archetypes and allocated companies to them based on their overall digital journey and performance.
1. German companies have increased their digital maturity by an average of 11% over the past 6 years
Digital transformation has made significant progress compared to 2019. Only 2% of the companies surveyed have not yet started the digital transformation as of 2025. On an industry level, from the three analyzed industry clusters - Automotive, Industrial Products and Chemicals & Pharma – the latter shows the biggest advancements in terms of digital maturity.
2. As digitalization advances, companies are making great efforts to build ecosystems because they expect to gain value from them. This is reflected in the fact that collaboration in corporate networks has increased by an immense +49% and the associated cross-company value creation by +60% compared to 2019. Furthermore, Digital Champions collaborate more and achieve higher than average EBIT uplifts.
For the less digitalized archetypes, there has been no clear improvement in recent years, emphasizing the necessity of mastering both facets of the digital transformation to achieve EBIT uplift. Focusing on either the strategic or operational aspects alone will not yield the desired EBIT and revenue uplift.
3. Satisfaction rates regarding digitalization are lower than two years ago (-2% from 2023), highlighting the need for efficiency gains and continuous learning (AI).
Many companies find themselves in a "middle ground" between analog and digital operations, which creates complexity without delivering efficiency. This partial transformation often results in increased operational complexity and inefficiencies, contributing to dissatisfaction.
The cards are being reshuffled in digitization and leading companies are focusing on broad-based transformations. Do you want to understand your competitive position and draw the right conclusions? Get in touch with us.
Would you like to learn more about the findings of our Deloitte Digital Maturity Index 2025? For more information on the current state of digitalization across several industries, download the full study here.