Siemens AG and Microsoft Corp have announced a new collaborative initiative, the Siemens Industrial Copilot, aiming to integrate artificial intelligence into the industrial sector, with a focus on manufacturing, transportation, and healthcare.
Siemens CEO Roland Busch highlighted the initiative’s aim to reshape industrial operations. “This collaboration is an important step in combining the digital with the physical, equipping industries to reimagine their operational processes,” said Busch. “The Siemens Industrial Copilot is designed to assist engineers in expediting the development of code, fostering innovation, and addressing the shortage of skilled labor.”
This initiative plans to provide AI-powered assistance to staff at customer companies, enhancing their capabilities in designing products, organizing production, and managing maintenance. Utilizing data from Siemens, the AI copilots will help streamline the creation and optimization of complex automation codes, significantly reducing the time required for simulations at various facilities.
German automotive supplier Schaeffler AG is one of the first to incorporate this AI technology. Schaeffler has utilized generative AI to support its engineers in programming tasks for industrial automation systems like robotics. Aiming to decrease downtime in its production processes, Schaeffler expects an improvement in efficiency, potentially turning weeks of work into minutes.
Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella also remarked on the partnership’s potential. “Our longstanding collaboration with Siemens is set to bring Microsoft’s cloud AI developments together with Siemens’ industrial expertise,” Nadella noted. “Our goal is to provide new AI-powered tools to both frontline and knowledge workers, starting with the Siemens Industrial Copilot.”
Additionally, the integration of Siemens’ Teamcenter software with Microsoft Teams is expected to facilitate better virtual collaboration within the industrial sector.
Further information about Siemens Industrial Copilot will be released at the SPS expo in Nuremberg, Germany, later in the year.
Based in Berlin and Munich, Siemens AG operates as a key technology entity focusing on industry, infrastructure, transport, and healthcare. For the fiscal year ending September 30, 2022, the Siemens Group reported revenues of €72.0 billion and a net income of €4.4 billion, employing about 311,000 people worldwide.
With this new initiative, Siemens and Microsoft aim to bring changes to the industrial sector by integrating AI in a way that supports and enhances human capabilities within the workplace.
