2026 Gartner® Market Guide for Manufacturing Execution Systems: How AI is shaping MES — and where we believe Opcenter adds customer value

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Introduction

In our opinion the 2026 Gartner Market Guide for Manufacturing Execution Systems confirms what many manufacturing vendors already sense: MES vendors have started to deliver on their roadmap, offering end users an opportunity to bring AI to the shop floor. CSCOs should use this research to support their MES strategy and where AI can bring new value.

We feel the report includes three practical truths for buyers: AI can remove barriers to MES adoption (configuration complexity, poor operator experience), but customers must modernize legacy environments first; interoperability and composability (open APIs, platform approaches, MCP) are essential; and trust — security, observability and human-in-the-loop controls — will determine adoption in regulated and safety‑critical industries.

What matters to customers

• Focus on measurable outcomes, not shiny features. to prioritize value-driven AI pilots (for example, automating system configuration or ingesting procedure documents into digital work instructions) that deliver clear productivity or quality gains.
• Modernize to unlock AI: legacy systems limit connectivity, data quality and model access — all prerequisites for useful AI.
• Demand interoperability and composability: MCP, open APIs and microservice architectures let AI integrate across ERP, PLM, QMS and analytics layers.
• Build trust from day one: zero‑retention options, explainability, observability and human oversight are required to scale AI in production.

At Siemens, we invest in our customers’ success – and thrive to make Opcenter better with every release. Since our beginnings more than 25 years ago, it has evolved from a traditional MES into a flexible, scalable and modular MOM offering — enabling organizations to reduce TCO, stay at the forefront of innovation, adapt quickly to change, scale personalization, and embrace technologies like AI.”

Tobias Lange – Senior Vice President Opcenter business

How we believe Opcenter MES aligns with guidance provided by Gartner — customer outcomes first

• Modern, modular platform to unlock AI quickly
  Opcenter MES and the modernized Opcenter applications were designed for cloud-ready, modular deployments. That reduces the modernization burden and enables customers to adopt embedded AI features sooner — from accelerated configuration to improved operator UX — without a full rip-and-replace of value-critical functionality.

• Configuration automation and low-code extensibility
  In our opinion Gartner points to LLM-driven configuration and low-/no-code approaches as rapid-win value areas. Opcenter’s model-driven approach, combined with Mendix embedding for tailored operator interfaces and configuration workflows, helps customers scale configurations, reduce reliance on scarce expert resources, and shorten time-to-value for new products and recipes.

• Interoperability and the digital thread
  The report stresses the importance of open architectures and MCP for agentic workflows. Opcenter’s deep digital thread integrations (Teamcenter, APS, Quality, Intra‑Plant Logistics) and the broader Siemens Xcelerator ecosystem make it straightforward to connect MES data into enterprise-level analytics and AI services — enabling the enterprise-context aggregation for meaningful answers to complex manufacturing questions.

• Analytics, industrial AI and knowledge fabric
  To us, Gartner offers insights into the need for manufacturing-specific models and a data fabric for operational AI. Opcenter’s integration with Insights Hub, provides customers with a route to contextualized, explainable insights — from SPC and OEE improvements to predictive quality and root-cause support — while keeping execution under human supervision.

• Trust, security and deployment flexibility
  Opcenter MES supports private cloud and hybrid deployments, can be run in customer-controlled environments, and is designed to integrate guardrails and human-in-the-loop workflows so AI outputs are auditable and operationally acceptable in regulated sectors.

Practical next steps for customers

• Prioritize pilots with measurable KPIs (configuration automation, digital work instructions ingestion, predictive quality proofs) rather than broad, unfocused AI initiatives.
• Modernize incrementally: leverage Opcenter MES’s modular services to move critical functions to a platform that supports AI without disrupting core operations.
• Design governance and observability early: define validation gates, human-in-the-loop policies and retention rules for any AI feature.
• Use the Siemens Xcelerator stack to accelerate integration: combine Opcenter, Insights Hub, Mendix and RapidMiner to build contextualized, explainable AI workflows tied to your KPIs.

Conclusion

In our opinion the 2026 Gartner Market Guide for MES is a timely reminder that AI’s shop‑floor potential depends on the right platform choices, strong integration, and practical, measurable pilots. Opcenter MES — modernized for cloud, integrated across the digital thread, and complemented by Insights Hub, Mendix and RapidMiner —

If your team is evaluating AI-driven MES use cases, the most valuable first step is a focused pilot with clear KPIs — and a platform that already supports the interoperability, observability and governance.

Read the Gartner report here: Market Guide for Manufacturing Execution Systems

Gartner, Market Guide for Manufacturing Execution Systems, By Jake Cunningham, Christian Hestermann, 23 March 2026

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