ARC Industry Leadership Forum 2025’s theme was “Winning in the industrial AI era.” Think again: Are you smarter than AI? Verify AI answers to be sure.
I’ve heard engineers talk about industrial artificial intelligence (AI) as if it were a younger coworker who can help a lot … and still needs careful oversight. AI does what control engineers have done since the inception of control engineering profession, creates models that can help guide outcomes. Major automation companies offer AI tools with to help guide operators and engineers shorten time to the finish line for many tasks. Don’t dismiss industrial AI as hype, though there’s plenty of that, too. Like any other automation tool, it’s important that engineers and others using AI software take time to verify truth. Do not, in haste, think, “Sound feasible” or “I guess” and plow ahead.
The 2025 salary and career research (page 36) asked subscribers, “What technologies will be helping in the coming year?” Among a plentiful list of automation technologies expected to help, artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) moved solidly into first place in 2025 at 36%, up 8 percentage points from third in 2024 (28%), and eighth in 2023.
Staying ahead of industrial AI progress
Every recent show I have attended discusses AI applications. Control Engineering frequently adds more industrial AI/ML progress at www.controleng.com/ai-and-machine-learning. A few observations on AI from the 2025 ARC Industry Forum follow:
Industrial AI is picking up pace in acceptance and product implementations for the industrial space. Greater use of autonomous operations, cybersecurity, Open Process Automation, digital twins and other open standards efforts and implementations continue to help lower costs, ease networking and system integration efforts and address the skills gap (demographic loss of talent through retirements, with too few young replacements).
Greg Gorbach, ARC Advisory Group, noted that ARC’s research said industrial AI is technology making the most impact in OT, for the third year.
Aveva, part of Schneider Electric, is attaching operations control to its Connect industrial intelligence platform, to drive use cases, including an Industrial AI assistant.
Michael Hotaling, ExxonMobil, innovation and strategy digital manager and leader of a digital twin working group suggested that a software-usefulness test is to ask, “Is your cognitive load more or less now?”
Dr. Mathias Oppelt, head of customer-drive innovation at Siemens Digital Industries, said Siemens is helping customers use IT/OT convergence to transition from general-purpose to industrial-grade AI.
As with other technology innovations, AI gets us to think again about our technology future. I recently noticed how polite a daughter was with a generative AI software application.
“Well, you know,” she said. “Just in case.”
Mark T. Hoske is editor-in-chief, Control Engineering, WTWH Media, [email protected].
ONLINE
At www.controleng.com, see more from the 2025 ARC Industry Forum.
Salary and career survey research shows artificial intelligence and machine learning topping the list helpful automation technologies.
