How AI realizes the future of technology
Today’s fantasy is often the basis for tomorrow’s reality with the technologies and ideas postulated in fiction serving as inspiration for the next generation of creators to fantasy into reality. Countless advancements have followed this trajectory with artificial intelligence being the latest. Now, looking further ahead, it’s possible to see what further advancements AI will help make into reality.
In a recent podcast, experts Justin Hodges, Senior AI/ML Technical Specialist and Todd Tuthill, Vice President of Aerospace, Defense, and Marine Industries from Siemens and Fatma Kocer-Poyraz, Vice President of Engineering Data Science from Altair concluded a conversation on AI and simulation by exploring what that meant for the future of digital transformation, as well as what that means for the future of innovation.
Keep reading for some of the highlights of that conversation or click here to listen to the full episode.
From AI and simulation to digital transformation
Digital transformation isn’t just a process to complete or a checkbox to mark on a sheet, it’s a maturity journey Todd explains. While the journey itself has many stages and elements, companies progressing along this path will find they can take better advantage of new and emerging technologies like generative AI and AI agents to both support further progress in digital transformation as well as revolutionize long held practices.
Today, companies that have connected their many data lakes, such as process, design and simulation data, are well positioned to leverage generative AI to help ease the burden of mundane tasks on human engineers. This not only helps boost productivity but increases job satisfaction at the same time. Expanding beyond this, AI can help expose patterns and relationships in systems that have grown too complex for common sense alone to handle. Just like with simulation, AI can help accelerate and direct across broad datasets, supporting existing technology and human users alike in making the most of their efforts.
Transforming science fiction to science fact
While improving digital transformation maturity is a very real process that helps develop the technologies of today, it’s also a key element in helping turn the fiction of today into the technology of tomorrow. While the gap between reality and fiction may, at first glance, seem insurmountable, the distance can be covered one step at a time with key technologies and systems – like AI, simulation and digital transformation.
Anyone who’s ever watched Star Trek is familiar with the idea of just talking to the computer to perform complex tasks with simple requests. 40 years ago, Todd says, this was complete impossible but today, the foundation has been laid, and increasingly complex tasks can be handled through natural language with AI copilots. While the technology of the 24th century is still beyond the reach of today, the continued advancement of AI, simulation and digitalization technologies is already poised to radically shift the way engineers design next generation products.
At the intersection of AI accelerated simulations, natural language copilots, augmented reality, and digital twin technologies, lies the next paradigm shift in design: engineering in a holodeck. In a virtual environment engineers will be able to shape new designs with voice and touch inputs, backed by the data of the digital twin and rapid simulations, allowing designs to be developed intuitively and iterated on easily. While the idea might seem outlandishly far away, the reality is that the building blocks exist today and, as AI continues to develop at an unprecedented pace, many things that were impossible just a few years ago will become commonplace tomorrow.
Artificial intelligence is a powerful tool set to revolutionize many tasks and industries but, at the same time, AI can only show its true strength in support of human ingenuity and other complex software. Looking further ahead, AI will help unlock new ways of doing things, re-imagining what a user experience is; building a layer on top of what came before to realize a new paradigm for design, simulation and innovation.
Siemens Digital Industries Software helps organizations of all sizes digitally transform using software, hardware and services from the Siemens Xcelerator business platform. Siemens’ software and the comprehensive digital twin enable companies to optimize their design, engineering and manufacturing processes to turn today’s ideas into the sustainable products of the future. From chips to entire systems, from product to process, across all industries. Siemens Digital Industries Software – Accelerating transformation.
