Immediately following my trip to a software conference featuring AI solutions, I attended an online press conference from Siemens at Hannover Fair. I’ve attended it in person several times over the years. This year Siemens held the press conference (with fewer than usual journalists) at their stand instead of a great hall that featured dinner following.
Siemens featured AI and agents introducing us to Eigen. They are tied to Microsoft Copilot for their solutions. I was more impressed by the Aras deep dives into governance than Siemens’ ignoring of that topic.
There were many announcements.
Industrial AI Suite and WinCC Unified now with general availability
- Enhanced cybersecurity: IEC 62443-4-2-certified security functions and air-gapped operation for critical infrastructures
- Industrial Information Hub with bidirectional data flow and ARM support for flexible, decentralized applications
- Growing partner ecosystem: New partner solutions for machine vision, quality inspection and robust industrial hardware
The Industrial AI Suite, based on Industrial Edge, is now generally available. It simplifies the entire AI lifecycle and enables embedding industrial AI via a complete infrastructure, easily scaling AI models and managing them across locations. The Industrial AI Suite supports a wide range of AI-based applications such as predictive maintenance and visual inspection to reduce downtime and sustainably increase production quality. In the latest version, the Industrial AI Suite also enables significantly more effective AI model retraining by allowing customers to combine image data with production data from MES systems or controllers.
Industrial Edge Management version 2.0 combines a redesigned, more user friendly and efficient user interface with enhanced data management and security for distributed infrastructures. At the same time, the platform now supports additional hypervisors such as OpenShift and Hyper-V, enabling Siemens Industrial Edge to be operated flexibly on existing IT infrastructures. Siemens thus bridges the requirements of both the IT and OT worlds.
IEC 62443-4-2-certified security functions for critical infrastructures, including air-gapped operation in which systems are physically isolated from external networks, are targeted for release in the second half of 2026 and are expected to provide enhanced cybersecurity. The high security and data management capabilities have been independently confirmed. Testing institute UL Solutions has awarded Siemens Industrial Edge and the virtual PLC the “Smart Systems Verified – Platinum” certification, evaluating six key categories: connectivity and interoperability, control and automation, digital experience, functional value, resilience, and cybersecurity.
The Industrial Information Hub has been fundamentally expanded. The data management solution enables bidirectional data flow: data models can now be synchronized in parallel between edge devices and central IT systems in both directions. This opens up new IT/OT integration scenarios. In addition, the new version of the Industrial Information Hub is available on ARM-based devices such as the SIMATIC IOT2050, which can, for example, be operated on battery power, with LTE-based wireless networking planned for a future release. Thanks to energy-efficient operation, this also means edge applications can be implemented at locations without permanent power supply. These innovations are particularly relevant for decentralized SCADA applications in logistics, water and waste management, or for renewable energy.
New partner solutions are also expanding the Industrial Edge ecosystem. Together with 36Zero Vision, MVTec and Basler, solutions are being developed in the areas of machine vision and quality inspection. From AI-driven defect detection and no-code image processing to modularly deployable image processing and analysis functions, companies can integrate machine vision use cases into manufacturing in a scalable manner.
Eigen
Siemens brings AI to the physical world with Eigen Engineering Agent
- New class of industrial AI product moves beyond AI-powered guidance to autonomous task completion
- Now commercially available, Eigen Engineering Agent delivers up to 50 percent efficiency gains in automation engineering tasks
- Latest milestone in Siemens’ announced €1 billion industrial AI investment advances company’s AI-centric growth strategy
The Eigen Engineering Agent is production-ready and available to the more than 600,000 users of Siemens’ Totally Integrated Automation Engineering platform, TIA Portal. It is part of the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio and is digitally available now.
The Eigen Engineering Agent takes its name from the German word “eigen.” While the word translates to “one’s own,” engineers know it best through concepts like “eigenvalues,” which are properties that remain constant even as everything around them transforms. As the AI landscape transforms rapidly and physical AI matures, the Eigen Engineering Agent is designed to be that constant: a steady source of intelligence, rooted in Siemens’ industrial heritage and capable of carrying out real work.
