The purpose of this study is to identify the barriers that affect the Industry 5.0 adoption. The adoption of Industry 5.0 is well justified by the ever-changing demands of recent times. This industrial transformation is the need of today’s ever-changing demand as it can address current industrial challenges through seamless collaboration between human and machine, resulting in effective, resilient, and sustainable production systems. Barriers are identified through the literature review and validated by experts. Innovative Resistance Theory (IRT) is used as a framework to explain the categorization of the barriers. A driving-dependence relationship is established between the barriers using a hybrid methodology of Fuzzy-Interpretive Structural Modelling (Fuzzy-ISM) and Cross-Impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification (MICMAC). The proposed methodology can help organizations to analyse the interrelationships among the nine identified barriers. This study aims to contribute to the existing literature on I5.0 adoption by clearly showcasing the challenges through the lens of driving power and dependence. The classification of barriers helps practitioners to identify the key dominant barriers and develop strategies to address them. This study does not focus solely on making manufacturing industries sustainable-centric; instead, it highlights the collective importance of all three key dimensions of Industry 5.0. This research is an empirical research that analyzes the industry-related barriers under the purview of innovative resistance theory (IRT) to better assess results and effective decision-making.