Siemens, Microsoft to use generative AI for industrial productivity

Siemens has partnered with Microsoft to use generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and others to increase efficiency and innovation across product lifecycles in industrial companies. 

Siemens and Microsoft have a long-standing partnership for over 35 years. Cedrik Neike, Member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG and CEO Digital Industries, said in a statement that “Siemens and Microsoft are coming together to deploy tools like ChatGPT so that they can empower workers at enterprises of all sizes to collaborate and innovate in new ways”. 

The partnership involves integrating Siemens' Teamcenter product lifecycle management software with Microsoft's Teams collaboration platform and Azure OpenAI Service, with a launch of the new Teamcenter app for Microsoft Teams expects later in 2023. 

With the new solution design engineers, frontline workers and teams across all business functions can close feedback loops faster and resolve the challenges together. For example, service engineers or production workers can use mobile devices to document and report product design or quality issues using natural speech. 

Additionally, Siemens and Microsoft are working together to speed up code generation for programmable logic controllers (PLCs), or industrial computers that control most machinery in factories. The duo will also leverage industrial AI for early defect detection in production, it said 

Scott Guthrie, executive vice president, Cloud + AI, Microsoft said the integration of AI into technology platforms will profoundly change how we work and how every business operates. “With this partnership, 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,” he added. 

With its ability to generate new, realistic data, generative AI has the potential to “revolutionize” many industries, including the industrial sector, said Brian Burke, Research VP for Technology Innovation at research firm Gartner, in a report published in January. 

The report further said that venture capital firms have invested over $1.7 billion in generative AI solutions over the last three years, with AI-enabled drug discovery and AI software coding receiving the most funding. There will be many more real-world examples of how generative AI is being used in different industries, it said. 

The companies are also collaborating on other areas including Senseye on Azure that will enable companies to run enterprise-wide predictive maintenance and support for customers looking to host business applications in the Microsoft cloud. Siemens is also partnering with Microsoft as part of its Zero Trust strategy that secures an organisation by eliminating implicit trust and continuously validating every stage of a digital interaction.