Microsoft and Siemens are deepening their partnership by bringing the benefits of generative AI to industries worldwide. As a first step, the companies are introducing Siemens Industrial Copilot, an AI-powered jointly developed assistant aimed at improving human-machine collaboration in manufacturing. In addition, the launch of the integration between Siemens Teamcenter software for product lifecycle management and Microsoft Teams will further pave the way to enabling the industrial metaverse. It will simplify virtual collaboration of design engineers, frontline workers, and other teams across business functions.Â
A new era of human-machine collaboration
Siemens Industrial Copilot will allow users to rapidly generate, optimize and debug complex automation code, and significantly shorten simulation times. This will reduce a task that previously took weeks to minutes. The copilot ingests automation and process simulation information from Siemens’ open digital business platform, Siemens Xcelerator, and enhances it with Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service. Customers maintain full control over their data, and it is not used to train underlying AI models.
Siemens Industrial Copilot promises to boost productivity and efficiency across the industrial lifecycle. Using natural language, maintenance staff can be assisted with detailed repair instructions and engineers with quick access to simulation tools.
The vision: Copilots for all industries
The companies envision AI copilots assisting professionals in various industries, including manufacturing, infrastructure, transportation, and healthcare. Numerous copilots are already planned in the manufacturing sectors, such as automotive, consumer package goods and machine building.
Schaeffler AG, a leading automotive supplier, is among the first in the automotive industry to embrace generative AI in the engineering phase. This helps its engineers to generate reliable code for programming industrial automation systems such as robots. In addition, the company intends to incorporate the Siemens Industrial Copilot during their own operations, aiming to significantly reduce downtimes, and also for their clients at a later stage.
