by Gary Mintchell | Feb 17, 2026 | Personal Development
You see many news items. Many times media only regurgitates what it is given by publicists. Or, they like the extravagant quote.
Om Malik recently wrote Our Crazy Unhinged Now about a news item from Elon Musk. This is a great lesson on reading through press releases.
The past decade has taught us this about Musk. The man loves his hyperboles. A million robotaxis by the end of 2026. A billion humanoid robots. Just last week, on Tesla’s earnings call, he announced the end of the Model S and Model X production lines, giving them an “honorable discharge.” The Fremont factory will be retooled to build Optimus robots instead. A million units a year, he says, on the same floor space that used to produce 100,000 cars. What that announcement really masks is simpler. Tesla’s EV sales fell 9% in 2025. The Model S and X accounted for just 3% of deliveries. The EV game, as a game of excitement and disruption, is pretty much over. It is now a boring business where Chinese manufacturers are going to dominate and push Tesla into increasingly marginal territory. The honorable discharge is really a quiet retreat dressed up in the language of the future. But hey, we are all living in the new Announcement Economy.
Consider this as you consume news (or what passes today for news).
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by Gary Mintchell | Feb 16, 2026 | Leadership
“What you’re supposed to do when you don’t like a thing is change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it. Don’t complain.” I’ve seen this quote attributed many ways. But it’s a good, Stoic thought.
One of my early bosses taught me—don’t come to me with a complaint or problem statement; come with an observation and proposed solution.
In my turn in leadership, people would occasionally come to me with a “cool idea.” The expectation was that I’d go to work on it. I would respond, “That’s a great idea. Why don’t you grab the reins and lead that project.” Usually they would drop the idea and go away. Suddenly, it was not so “cool.” But a good, forward thinking idea with potential—those would get done. And a new leader born.
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by Gary Mintchell | Feb 13, 2026 | Security
Dragos has more news coming next week. In the meantime, news of a collaboration with, who else for industrial software, Microsoft. How many Microsoft mentions squeezed into one sentence—Dragos brings proven energy and industrial cybersecurity, seamlessly deployed on Microsoft Azure, integrated with Microsoft Sentinel and readily accessible through Microsoft Marketplace.
Dragos Inc., a global leader in cybersecurity for operational technology (OT) environments, announced February 3, an expanded collaboration with Microsoft to help organizations modernize and secure their cyber-physical operations amid accelerating digital transformation, cloud adoption, and AI-driven change.
This collaboration focuses on integrating Dragos’s capabilities with Microsoft’s cloud and security platforms. By deploying the Dragos Platform on Microsoft Azure, integrating with Microsoft Sentinel, and enabling streamlined procurement through Microsoft Marketplace, organizations can more tightly align IT and OT security operations while adopting robust protections purpose-built for operational environments.
The collaboration addresses Microsoft customers’ on-premises OT security needs and enables Dragos to expand its cloud reach, creating deployment flexibility that serves customers’ diverse infrastructure strategies. Importantly, Dragos, a Microsoft partner, addresses a long-standing capability gap for organizations seeking to modernize operations without introducing unacceptable operational risk.
They provide a list of benefits:
- Unified IT/OT security operations through native integrations with Microsoft Sentinel Flexible deployment options across cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments to support diverse infrastructure strategies
- Improved visibility into industrial assets, threats, and operational impact, enabling faster, more informed response
- Reduced procurement friction via Microsoft Marketplace and alignment with customers’ Azure consumption commitments
- A future-ready foundation for securing AI-enabled, connected, and automated operations
- This integrated approach enables organizations to accelerate cloud and AI initiatives while maintaining the safety, availability, and compliance requirements essential to cyber-physical environments.
Four integration pillars:
- Flexible Deployment Options—Beginning in Q1 2026, the Dragos Platform will support SaaS deployments on Azure, in addition to on-premises and hybrid models.
- Microsoft Sentinel Integration—OT-specific telemetry, threat intelligence, and asset context from Dragos flow directly into Microsoft Sentinel, enabling unified IT/OT detection, investigation, and response.
- Microsoft Marketplace Availability—Customers can procure Dragos through Microsoft Marketplace and apply Azure consumption commitments (MACC), aligning OT security investment with broader cloud and AI initiatives.
- Looking Ahead—This collaboration establishes a scalable foundation for continued innovation, enabling deeper technical integration and coordinated go-to-market execution as OT, cloud, and AI environments become increasingly interconnected. For customers, it provides a clear, future-ready path to secure modernization, establishing Dragos’s OT-native cybersecurity as an integral capability within one of the world’s most important enterprise technology ecosystems.
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by Gary Mintchell | Feb 12, 2026 | Process Control
Seth Godin wrote, Gall’s Law is appropriately simple:
“A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system.”
This is why sudden change rarely is, and why persistence and user feedback end up changing the systems that run our world.
Process control is a complex system. It built up over decades from analog devices to digital computer systems housed in large operator stations. I’m not about to argue Gall’s Law for process. But everyone involved knows the painful, expensive, time-consuming project of upgrading their current system once it becomes a bit too aged.
And upgrading is today’s problem.
There are few new projects—what are called greenfield. Especially in the United States where perhaps 60% of my readers live and work.
Two companies sent news releases charting their paths to upgrading existing process control systems within a week of each other. One touting the largest installed base. The other most likely with a much smaller installed base. Different approaches to solving the problem of simplifying the upgrade path.
OK, so much for the suspense. One came from ABB. The other, announced at an analyst conference this week, from Schneider Electric/Foxboro.
First, I had to think through the common words used by both in order to get to that golden nugget of real news.
Here’s a list of those words. Perhaps you see them or hear them often from your sales engineers.
- Modern
- Open
- Modular
- Modernize
- Flexibility
- Scalability
- Efficiency
- Interoperability
Once I cancelled out all the “buzz” words, I was able to focus on the reality. I love it when I get a release or an interview where they actually say what they do rather than hiding behind generalities.
I thought for quite some time about what these releases really said. I’ll post them here after I receive answers to many questions. I like definitions for such terms as “open.” Both are active members of OPAF. Neither mentioned that. Is there a correlation? How interoperable is interoperable?
These companies have taken different paths owing to their installed bases and objectives. I criticize neither.
I will delve into the technologies next week after I hear back. Perhaps you’d like to grab a half-hour of quiet time (OK, many of you are smirking, but it’s possible) to reflect on your needs and your plans for upgrading. Will it be complexity squared? Or, can you find a simpler path.
Some famous physicist advised that your solution should be as simple as possible—but not too simple. Consider that.
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by Gary Mintchell | Feb 11, 2026 | Operator Interface, Robots, Technology
Just heard of a company based both in San Francisco and Trondheim, Norway working in the robotic space. The problem it is solving is commanding industrial robots to perform pre-trained tasks without programming. Using AI training specific to the robot and applications, Trener Robotics’ Acteris platform allows operators to talk to robots in their own words to execute pre-trained skills.
I guess it’s inevitable that Alexa and Siri (hopefully better than the Apple version) gain industrial employment.
Trener Robotics today announced this week it has raised a $32 million Series A round of funding. Co-led by existing investor Engine Ventures and new investor IAG Capital Partners with participation from strategic investors Cadence and Geodesic Capital, through Nikon’s NFocus Fund, the new capital brings Trener Robotics’ total funding to over $38 million and will be used to support training Trener Robotics’ platform Acteris with new industrial robot processes, distribution expansion into new markets, and hiring talent to address rapidly scaling demand.
Unlike brittle, narrowly scripted systems or research-first generalist platforms, Acteris is a practical, shop-floor-proven solution. Trener Robotics’ first focus area is robotic CNC machine-tending with other high-demand applications to follow in 2026. Manufacturers using Acteris gain:
- A groundbreaking agentic user interface that enables robots to be controlled through natural conversation, intuitive task sequences, and high-fidelity simulation. It empowers any user, regardless of robotics expertise, to effortlessly run high-performance robotic applications.
- Part identification and handling even under adverse conditions.
- Optimized robot motions that react to changes, delivering unprecedented robustness.
- Intelligent collision avoidance and enhanced safety features that mimic common sense.
- Real-time production dashboards for performance monitoring.
Trener Robotics has built rapid momentum with more than 15 solution and integration partners across Europe and the U.S. that now provide Acteris-powered turnkey solutions—including the robot, gripper, and software—all pre-integrated and production-ready. Acteris is currently directly compatible with ABB, Universal Robots, and FANUC, with more leading robot brands to follow.
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