Germany's Siemens Unveils Pilot Application of Industrial AI Assistant in China at CIIF

Siemens has revealed the first pilot application of its artificial intelligence assistant in the Chinese market at the China International Industry Fair, highlighting the German industrial giant's latest efforts to speed up its localization.

Siemens and its Chinese partner CASMT Changzhou Automation jointly revealed the next-generation assembly equipment for new energy vehicle electromechanical brake systems that uses the Industrial Copilot AI assistant at the CIIF, which runs from Sept. 23 through 27 in Shanghai.

Industrial Copilot can help engineers reduce program development time by 30 percent, cut on-site commissioning time on the production line by 30 percent, and lower labor and material losses by 10 percent, some employees from Siemens told Yicai.

The application of industrial AI begins with accurately capturing demand scenarios and ends with deeply integrating technology, data, and industry mechanisms, Xiao Song, executive vice president of Siemens and chairman and chief executive of its China arm, said at the CIIF. "By allying with ecological innovation partners, we will help thousands of Chinese industrial firms reap the value of industrial AI and achieve real benefits."

Siemens has carried out a lot of localized transformations of its industrial AI products to adapt to the needs of Chinese users, Joerg Westerholt, general manager of Siemens China’s factory automation division, said to Yicai. For example, a new rackmount industrial computer exhibited at the CIIF has been adapted to the domestic operating system KylinOS, he noted.

The Chinese market is becoming increasingly competitive, so multinational companies must increase their localized research and development efforts to launch economical and efficient products to meet such challenges, Westerholt pointed out.

Although more than 80 percent of industrial companies recognize that AI agents can improve production efficiency and reduce operating costs, around 43 percent have not yet deployed AI agents and only 8 percent have realized multi-scenario applications, according to a survey by Siemens released at the CIIF.

The factors restricting firms from deploying AI agents are mainly centered around high deployment costs, lack of professional talent, and insufficient technology maturity, Siemens said. When assessing whether to deploy AI agents, companies put stability and reliability at the core of their consideration.