MUNICH — Siemens and Microsoft have joined forces to showcase the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in revolutionizing factory automation. Their collaboration, unveiled at Hannover Messe, marks a significant milestone in leveraging AI to drive innovation and efficiency across the lifecycle of industrial products, from design and engineering to manufacturing and operations, according to a press release published on EuropaWire .

The partnership integrates Siemens’ Teamcenter® software for product lifecycle management (PLM) with Microsoft’s collaboration platform Teams and Azure AI capabilities, including the powerful language models in Azure OpenAI Service. This integration aims to streamline cross-functional collaboration and harness the potential of generative AI to enhance various aspects of factory automation.

Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of Cloud + AI at Microsoft, emphasized the groundbreaking nature of this collaboration, stating, “The integration of AI into technology platforms will profoundly change how we work and how every business operates. With Siemens, we are bringing the power of AI to more industrial organizations, enabling them to simplify workflows, overcome silos, and collaborate in more inclusive ways to accelerate customer-centric innovation.”

One of the highlights of the collaboration is the introduction of the Teamcenter app for Microsoft Teams, slated for release later in 2023. This app will enable design engineers, frontline workers, and teams across business functions to collaborate seamlessly, closing feedback loops faster and addressing challenges collectively. Through Azure OpenAI Service, the app can parse informal speech data, automatically generating summarized reports and routing them to the appropriate experts within Teamcenter.

Cedrik Neike, Member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG and CEO Digital Industries, underscored the significance of advanced AI technologies in driving digital transformation, stating, “Powerful, advanced artificial intelligence is emerging as one of the most important technologies for digital transformation. Siemens and Microsoft are coming together to deploy tools like ChatGPT so we can empower workers at enterprises of all sizes to collaborate and innovate in new ways.”

The collaboration also extends to accelerating software development for Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC), crucial components in industrial automation. Through demonstrations at Hannover Messe, Siemens and Microsoft showcased how AI services like OpenAI’s ChatGPT can augment Siemens’ industrial automation engineering solutions, reducing time and errors in code generation.

Moreover, the collaboration addresses the imperative of quality management in production processes. By leveraging industrial AI, including computer vision powered by Microsoft Azure Machine Learning and Siemens’ Industrial Edge, teams can detect defects early, scale quality control, and make real-time adjustments on the shop floor.

This collaboration between Siemens and Microsoft underscores their commitment to driving innovation and digital transformation in the industrial sector. With a legacy of over 35 years of joint innovation and thousands of customers worldwide, the partnership represents a continuation of their shared vision to empower industries with cutting-edge technologies.

For more information about Siemens Digital Industries and its portfolio of innovative solutions, visit www.siemens.com.