New Trends and Perspectives of the Commercial Drone IndustryBased on aDirect Surveying of Global Drone Companies Drone Industry Insights | White Paper |October2025 COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER Copyright©2025DroneIndustryInsights.Allrightsreserved.Titlephotoby:FreeflySystems TheinformationcontainedinthispresentationisproprietarytoDroneIndustryInsightsandisdisclosedinconfidence.Thepresentationandtheinformationcontainedhereinshallbekeptstrictlyconfidential.Theyshallnotbeused,disclosedtoothers,orreproducedwithouttheexpresswrittenconsentofDroneIndustryInsights.Nothingcontainedinthispublicationshallconstituteanywarranty,guarantee,orliabilityforDroneIndustryInsightsanditsaffiliates,butisforinformationpurposesonly.Accordingly,DroneIndustryInsightsandaffiliatesneitherexpresslynorconclusivelyacceptresponsibilityorliabilityfortheactuality,accuracy,andcompletenessofthestatementsandinformationcontainedinthispublication. Thisreportistheresultofindependentmarketresearchand/orcompetitiveanalysiscreatedbyDroneIndustryInsightsandrepresentsthecurrentlevelofknowledgeintheindustry. Giventherapiddevelopmentsinthedronespace,whichareoutsidetheinfluenceofDroneIndustryInsights,wecannotbeheldaccountableforanyoppositedevelopments.Liabilityisexcludedforslightnegligence. WARNING:UploadinganyreportsordataofDroneIndustryInsightstoartificialintelligenceplatforms,includingbutnotlimitedtoChatGPT,Perplexity,You.com,Humana,ChatPDF,etc.,is considered a violation of our privacy policy and,therefore,strictlyprohibited.Sincetheseplatformsuseandareoftentrainedonuserdata,wereserveandherebyexercisetherighttoexplicitlyprohibitthesharingofourprivatelyproducedandcopyrightedmaterialontheseplatforms. TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARYINTRODUCTORY FACTS OF THE GLOBAL STATE OF DRONESDRONE OPERATIONEXPECTATIONS VS. REALITYMARKET DEVELOPMENTS BREAKDOWNRESOURCESBIGGEST CHALLENGES FOR THE DRONE INDUSTRYDRIVING FACTORS IN A DYNAMIC MARKETPARTNER DRONE EVENTS AND DISTRIBUTION PARTNERSABOUT DRONE INDUSTRY INSIGHTS4579101214161718 TABLE OF FIGURES 55557791012121416Figure 1:Most Represented Regions in Global State of Drones Report 2025Figure 2:Most Represented Countries in Global State of Drones 2025Figure 3:Survey Respondents by Market SegmentFigure 4:Company Size RespondentsFigure 5:Main Applied MethodsFigure 6:Reasons for Adopting DronesFigure 7:Market Development in the Next 12 Months and Their Reflections on the Past 12 MonthsFigure 8:Market Development in the Last/Next 12 Months by Market SegmentFigure 9:Survey Respondents’ Answers to What They Allocate Their Resources ToFigure 10:Resource Allocation Priorities by Drone BusinessFigure 11:Biggest Challenge for the Industry 2023-2025Figure 12:Survey Respondents’ Assessment of the Most Important Market-Driving Actors in the Drone Industry EXECUTIVE SUMMARY infunding since then,the overall development remainsrelativelyrobust.Within this results,the Drone Softwareindustryisthebigwinnerinthecurrentsurvey.Itsdevelopmentincreasedby0.6pointsto7.2,andexpectationsforthenext12monthsincreasedtoastrong8.0.DroneIntegration/Engineeringcompanies experienced the sharpestdecline,resultinginbelow-averageexpectations(5.5). The8thannualDroneIndustrySurveytookplacefromMaytoJulyof2025.Overthecourseoftwomonths,itcollectedatotal:of768responsesfrom87countries Participantsdemographics2025 MostsurveyparticipantscomefromEurope,withastrong46%,followedby North America and Asia with 19%and 18%,respectively. Resourcesallocation Theservicesectorstillaccountsforthelargestshareat68%(2024:74%)followedbyhardwarecompanieswith24%(+6%)andsoftwarecompanieswith8%(+/-0%). Thestrategic allocation of resources in the drone sector isbecominganincreasinglycriticalcomponent.Overtheyears,Marketing&Sales resources have remained stable at justunderathird,althoughthisyeartherehasbeenaslightdecline(-2%).Fundingisbecomingincreasinglycritical,asinvestmentspeakedin2021andhavedeclinedsincethen. Thesize of companies has increased slightly compared torecentyears.While 55%of companies had fewer than 10employeesin2024,thisyearthefigureisonly48.2%. Howandwhycompaniesusedrones Globalchallengesandpriorities Mapping&Surveyingcontinuetobethedominantmethodsfordroneapplications,usedby35%ofalldroneoperatorsfollowedbyinspection(26%)and photography and filming(18%).Spraying&Dispensing,Delivery,andLocalization&Trackingshowincreasing numbers,ranging from 5%(Localization&Tracking)to7%(DeliveryandSpraying&Dispensing).In2025,the#1 reason to use drones is“saving time,”followed byimprovingquality.This represents a significant shift frompreviousyears,when“improving work safety”was almostwithoutexceptionthemostimportantreason. Inthisyear’ssurvey,thethreeleadingchallengesareregulatoryobstacles(e.g.,certificationprocess,unabletoflyBVLOS,atnight,etc.),client acquisition(e.g.,finding clients,closingcontracts),andacquiringadditionalfundingtoscaleup(e.g.,seriesinvestments). Thetop market-driving actor is once again the rule-makingauthoritiesthatincreasedagainfrom57%lastyeart