Siemens unveils AI‑driven digital manufacturing strategy and software‑defined automation

At the Automate 2026 conference Siemens outlined a data‑centric vision for manufacturing that combines industrial AI, digital twins, digital thread and software‑defined automation (SDA). The company says labor shortages, supply‑chain disruptions and geopolitical instability cost the sector about $1.6 trillion in annual revenue growth. Siemens highlighted its SIMATIC S7‑1500V virtual controller, which runs on commodity hardware and is already used by Audi’s Edge Cloud 4 Production project at the Böllinger Höfe plant in Neckarsulm, Germany, enabling remote, software‑based control of production lines.

At CES 2026 Siemens introduced Digital Twin Composer, a platform that merges industrial IoT data, AI analytics and photorealistic digital twins within the Xcelerator software suite, leveraging NVIDIA Omniverse. A pilot with PepsiCo in the United States showed the tool could detect up to 90 % of design issues before construction and increase throughput by roughly 20 %, illustrating the shift from static factory planning to continuous virtual simulation. Together, the announcements signal Siemens’ push toward an “industrial metaverse” where engineering, operations and AI teams work from a shared, live virtual model of the factory.