Siemens Introduces AI Agents for Industrial Automation

Source: Siemens

Siemens is announcing an expansion of its industrial AI offerings with advanced AI agents designed to work across its established Industrial Copilot ecosystem at Automate in Detroit this week. This new technology represents a fundamental shift from AI assistants that respond to queries towards truly autonomous agents that proactively execute entire processes without human intervention.

Siemens’ new AI agent architecture features a sophisticated orchestrator that deploys a toolbox of specialized agents to solve complex tasks across the entire industrial value chain. These agents work intelligently and autonomously — understanding intent, improving performance through continuous learning, accessing external tools and other agents as needed. Users retain complete control, selecting which tasks to delegate to AI agents.

“With our Industrial AI agents, we’re moving beyond the question-answer paradigm to create systems that can independently execute complete industrial workflows,” said Rainer Brehm, CEO of factory automation at Siemens Digital Industries. “By automating automation itself, we envision productivity increases of up to 50% for our customers — fundamentally changing what’s possible in industrial operations.”

Automating automation: how the AI agent architecture works
Siemens’ approach distinguishes between Industrial Copilots, the interfaces users interact with, and the AI agents that power them behind the scenes. Furthermore, the company is developing digital agents, and integrating physical agents, including mobile robots. With this offering, Siemens is creating a comprehensive multi-AI-agent system where agents are highly connected and work collaboratively.

The orchestration of these agents is what is unique to the Siemens’ system, utilizing a comprehensive ecosystem. These agents work with other Siemens agents and integrate with third-party agents, enabling unprecedented levels of interoperability.

To further accelerate adoption and innovation, Siemens plans to create an industrial AI agent marketplace hub on the Siemens Xcelerator Marketplace that will enable customers to access AI from Siemens and third parties.

Siemens Industrial Copilot
The Siemens Industrial Copilot, enhanced by Industrial AI agents, addresses every phase along the industrial value chain, across process and discrete industries:

• Design Copilot: Currently available for NX CAD, helps users accelerate the product design process. The AI-powered assistant enables users to ask questions in natural language, quickly access detailed technical insights, and streamline complex design tasks — all leading to significant efficiency gains in product development. Siemens is also currently developing a Hydrogen Configurator for designing hydrogen production plants. Users can seamlessly generate block flow diagrams with precise plant unit layouts and interconnections with it.
• Planning Copilot: Currently in pre-release with customer testimonials already available, this solution optimizes production planning, resource allocation and scheduling through generative AI-powered insights, helping manufacturers maximize efficiency and minimize waste.
• Engineering Copilot: Available for TIA Portal with Managed Service coming in 2025, it enables engineering without repetitive tasks. As the first generative AI-powered product for automation engineering, it empowers engineers to generate automation code through natural language inputs, speeding up SCL code generation while minimizing errors.
  
  In process industries, the copilot for P&ID Digitalization has already been tested by several customers. It’s an AI-assisted P&ID detection cloud service to digitalize and consolidate legacy P&ID diagrams.

• Operations Copilot: Currently available for Insights Hub, the Copilot provides holistic insights into the entire plant. In addition, at the machine level, Siemens is planning to introduce an Operations Copilot for shop floor workers, which will be available by the end of 2025. This new product empowers shop floor operators, service technicians and maintenance engineers to work more efficiently by querying machine data and receiving error resolution guidance through natural language. The Operations Copilot can be easily implemented at the machine level to provide machine instructions and operator guidance.
  
  For the process industries, the generative AI-based assistant Simatic eaSie, enables technicians and maintenance personnel to access relevant plant and equipment data via chat or voice interaction. This makes operations and maintenance more reliable and safer both in the control room and the field.

• Services Copilot: The Maintenance Copilot Senseye provides maintenance teams with expert-level equipment diagnostics without requiring specialized technical knowledge. This solution was recently expanded to support everything from reactive repairs to predictive and preventive strategies, with pilot implementations demonstrating an average 25% reduction in reactive maintenance time.

Addressing the skills gap in manufacturing
The Siemens Industrial Copilot is already delivering measurable results in both Siemens’ plants and customer implementations worldwide. At thyssenkrupp Automation Engineering, where the technology is being rolled out globally, engineers have reported code quality improvements and development speed. Meanwhile, at Siemens’ Bad Neustadt site, the Insights Hub Production Copilot has transformed manufacturing operations by turning scattered data into actionable insights.

“In a factory environment, our Industrial AI agents connect different copilots and automate workflows across the entire value chain. This creates a unified approach that makes industrial AI accessible to everyone, regardless of their technical background or experience level,” said Brehm. “We envision a future where Industrial AI agents work seamlessly alongside human workers, handling routine processes independently while enabling humans to focus on innovation, creativity, and complex problem-solving.”

For more information about the Siemens Industrial Copilot ecosystem and Industrial AI agents, visit www.siemens.com/industrial-copilot