Thursday, November 5, 2026. Manufacturing tech spending is climbing even while the Fed sits on its hands, AI prompt counts reveal most manufacturers aren’t actually using AI, and a Google Calendar phishing campaign is stealing sessions after you hand it your MFA code — today we cover all three.
Manufacturing Tech Orders Keep Rising — Fed or No Fed
This story landed in my feed from Quality Magazine, which is a real manufacturing trade publication, not a Chamber of Commerce press release dressed up in a hard hat. The headline is that the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady in a range of 3.75% to 4%, and the Association for Manufacturing Technology is reporting a continued expansion in manufacturing technology investment despite that.
I’ll be honest — the rate-hold felt like old news to me. But what caught my attention was the manufacturing investment angle. The AMT makes the point that manufacturing technology demand runs on long production cycles. These aren’t impulse buys. When a shop floor commits to new equipment or automation, that decision was made months ago and the money is already moving. So the fact that investment is climbing even in a higher-rate environment tells you something real is happening on the demand side. More manufacturing is occurring. That’s a good thing.
Which brings me directly to the next piece.
Manufacturers Are Investing in IT — But Can’t Prove the ROI Yet
This one came from IT Wire, and the headline is that manufacturing IT is ahead on proactive automation but still needs clear proof of AI’s value. There are a lot of numbers in the article, and I’m not going to torture you with all of them. But one number jumped out and I can’t let it go.
The average manufacturer is doing 3.08 AI prompts per day. Across all industries the average is 3.28. In tech it’s 4.72.
Three prompts a day. I want you to sit with that for a second.
A prompt, in the way most people are using the word, is just a question you type into an AI. “Summarize this.” “Write me an email.” That’s a prompt. And if your whole shop is averaging three of those a day, you are not using AI — you are visiting AI. There’s a difference.
The way I use it, and the way I’d want any of my clients using it, is more like running a staff member through a full shift. You’re not asking it one question and walking away. You’re giving it commands, building automations, generating reports, creating things you’d otherwise have to do yourself or hire someone to do. I’m not going to claim an exact number, but I’m issuing hundreds of prompts a day because I’m building with it, not just querying it.
Three prompts a day tells me most manufacturers don’t yet know what the tool actually is. That’s what this article means to me. Take that for what it’s worth.
Google Calendar Phishing Is Bypassing MFA — Here’s the Actual Mechanic
This one is from Bleeping Computer, and it’s worth paying attention to if you’re running Google Workspace.
There’s an active phishing campaign using Google Calendar invite requests as the delivery mechanism. You get a calendar invite, it prompts you to authenticate, you type in your password and your MFA code — and at that point the attacker’s infrastructure steals the session token off your machine. The token is what your browser holds after you log in successfully. Grab the token, and you don’t need the password anymore. You are the logged-in user.
My first reaction was: who is plugging their password into a calendar invite? No calendar invite has ever asked you to authenticate before. That’s not a thing. If a Google Calendar request is suddenly demanding your credentials, that is the fire alarm going off. Do not type anything.
But I also know that people are busy and clicking fast, so I went and checked our own security stack. I asked our SaaS security platform whether we had coverage on this specific attack chain. It came back with a detailed report — we had six of the eight attack vectors covered. Not perfect. So I had it generate three additional hardening steps to close the gap, and we’re working through those now.
If you’re running Google and you don’t have SaaS security monitoring on top of it, this attack can work on you. The keys to your Google account are the keys to a lot of things — email, Drive, everything. If you’re concerned, call us. And if you want my honest opinion: get off Google. That’s where I’d start.
Quick Hits Before I Go Lose My Voice
Pfizer dropped $650 million into a U.S. manufacturing tech center. I have complicated feelings about Pfizer as a company. I have zero complicated feelings about $650 million going into U.S. manufacturing. That’s good.
Chicago locked in the IMTS manufacturing show through 2034. The International Manufacturing Technology Show is staying in Chicago for the next decade. I’d like to get out there for one of those.
That’s the show. Coming down with something, so I’m keeping it short today. Strong finish to the week, everybody — and I’ll see you next Thursday at 10.
— Albert, Chief Nerd, ACS
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