Weidmuller USA announced the findings from the 2026 PCB Design Tools and Component Selection Survey, a national survey of 400 engineers in North America to understand how they design PCBs, evaluate components and use emerging tools such as AI in their workflow. The study revealed that almost 80% of respondents placed the highest value on a product’s reliability when selecting components for PCB designs. According to the survey, more than 90% of engineers have used AI-based tools in their PCB design workflow. The majority of respondents (75%) viewed AI tools as a productivity and acceleration layer within existing workflows for increased efficiency and faster design iteration. The responding engineers also provided insights on their decision-making during the PCB design process, with almost half saying that component selections for a new PCB design are finalized during the early concept phase or in the schematic design phase.