News and thoughts on industrial automation, PLCs, simulation and AI.
Emerson has announced the integration of Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers into the NI open test platform, allowing third-party AI agents to interact with test hardware, software and data. The news points to where test automation is heading, but many technical details remain to be verified.
In an interview published by Plant Engineering on November 12, 2026, Honeywell's Greg Turner argues that AI diagnostics already deliver results and that integrating existing systems pays off more than replacing them. These are vendor claims, but they offer practical takeaways.
A panel at the Industrial AI Summit 2026, summarized by IIoT World on 12 November 2026, proposes a placement rule for AI between edge and cloud, controls on autonomy, and attention to security risks. These are panel opinions, in an article sponsored by InfluxData.
On November 12, 2026, Plant Engineering and Control Engineering published an interview with George T. Hall Company, winner of the under-$10 million category of System Integrator of the Year. It offers a concrete case of integrating skids from different vendors, plus a look at the firm's interest in EcoStruxure Automation Expert.
On November 12, 2026, Control Engineering and Plant Engineering announced the System Integrator of the Year winners. In the over-$40 million category, the winner was GrayMatter, an integrator active in SCADA and cloud-based quality management.
At Stellantis' Goiana plant, an anomaly detection system prevented 14 equipment failures in six months. For automation professionals, the most interesting part is how the team built engineers' trust: by showing the evidence.
A sponsored OPSWAT article published on IIoT World on 9 November 2026 argues that file integrity must be assured from approval all the way to the PLC or HMI. The point matters to anyone who distributes programs, HMI projects or firmware, regardless of the product being promoted.
According to the CEO of AutoScheduler.AI, teams starting a warehouse AI project should begin with the decisions they need to support, not an endless data cleanup. It is a vendor's view, but it offers useful practical guidance.
A panel at the Industrial AI Summit 2026 separates "AI ready" from "decision ready" factories and proposes three metrics and four autonomy levels for judging when operators can trust AI. The write-up, published on 30 October 2026, is sponsored content.
Texas Instruments has unveiled two new devices: a system-on-module for industrial Ethernet and an IO-Link master. According to TI, switching protocols takes nothing more than a firmware update.
Turkish polyester yarn producer Korteks has digitalized its textured yarn packaging line using Omron solutions. It is a useful case for thinking about integrating field automation with higher-level software, though many details remain to be verified.
According to an IIoT World report dated November 4, 2026, Teva evaluated roughly 300 AI technologies for its network of 30 plants. To choose, it relies on "proof of value" tests that go beyond asking whether the technology works.
According to a panel at the Industrial AI Summit 2026, OEMs such as Siemens Energy and Ingersoll Rand are shifting from selling machines to guaranteeing outcomes, made possible by fleet-scale AI. Here is what changes for plants and integrators.
A panel at the Industrial AI Summit 2026 pointed to the main reasons AI pilots never reach production: hidden costs, no business owner, generic models and data that isn't ready. A practical checklist helps assess maturity before you start.
According to an interview with Keith Moore, CEO of AutoScheduler.AI, published by IIoT World on 6 November 2026, daily workforce planning in P&G warehouses dropped from roughly 8 hours to 20 minutes. The case offers practical lessons on architecture, explainability and AI adoption in industrial settings.
At the Industrial AI Summit 2026, a panel argued that every AI agent in an OT environment should be treated as an insider, with governance owned by the industrial cybersecurity team. A viewpoint worth reading with the vendor sponsorship in mind.
According to Automazione Plus (3 November 2026), attacks on retail refrigeration systems that began in France have reached Sicily. A concrete case for anyone who programs and manages PLCs.
On 23 October 2026, IIoT World published a Q&A from the Industrial AI Summit 2026: no single standard covers AI in manufacturing on its own, so a stack is needed. Here is what PLC/SCADA engineers and integrators can take from it.
On 21 October 2026, IIoT World published Benson Chan's (Strategy of Things) answer on how to classify the risk of industrial AI use cases before implementation. The model crosses decision severity with level of automation.
According to a panel at the Industrial AI Summit 2026, AI agents in pharma must meet ALCOA principles just like any human decision. That requires a record created at the moment of the decision, not reconstructed afterward.
According to a panel at the Industrial AI Summit 2026, reported by IIoT World on October 29, 2026, AI fails to scale because of tag names, unaligned clocks and missing context. It is PLC, SCADA and historian engineering work long before it is data science.
Stellantis' Goiana plant standardized how it collects, contextualizes and shares data, cutting integration times from months to weeks. The case, reported by IIoT World, shows that scaling industrial AI depends more on the data model than on the AI models themselves.
Siemens has won the Bimu FutureTech Award 2026 with Eigen Engineering Agent, a generative AI assistant built into TIA Portal. It signals how PLC and HMI code will increasingly be written.
A Booz Allen Hamilton whitepaper describes lab tests in which frontier AI models moved from a network breach to physical actions in OT. For SCADA designers, the most relevant finding concerns a gateway holding already-authenticated sessions to 14 devices.
On 19 October 2026 Advantech unveiled AIR-411, a compact HPC system for edge AI. Here is what we know, what is still missing, and the questions integrators should ask.
An article published by IIoT World on October 19, 2026 summarizes a panel at the Industrial AI Summit 2026: predictive maintenance has slipped in use-case rankings, but prescriptive AI could bring it back to the top. The figures are vendor claims and have not been independently verified.
According to Neil Smith of Schneider Electric, the EU's new packaging and cybersecurity rules are really a data management problem. For automation professionals, that means traceable, reliable data that extends beyond the plant boundary.
Claroty's Team82 used an AI coding agent to reproduce three known vulnerabilities in Danfoss AK-SM 800A controllers in about 28 minutes for roughly $6. The case shows how AI shortens the time between a CVE disclosure and a working exploit.
According to Engineering.com, NVIDIA says semiconductor makers are adopting its CUDA-X libraries, including the new cuPotential. The use case is far from discrete-event simulation, but it reinforces the principle: build the twin first, then change the line.
On 16 October 2026, IIoT World published a Q&A with Schneider Electric and TwinThread on taking industrial AI beyond the pilot phase. It offers practical guidance on the business case, data, sharing with OEMs and human oversight.
On 15 October 2026, IIoT World published answers from Schneider Electric and TwinThread on industrial AI, operators and accountability. They offer useful design guidance for anyone integrating AI into plant operations.
On 15 October 2026, MathWorks announced an extension of the TÜV SÜD certification of its tools, with guidance on classifying AI tools under ISO 26262. It is a concrete example of how AI can enter a regulated development process.
On October 14, 2026, Engineering.com reported a collaboration between Hitachi and FANUC to combine industrial AI and robotics. Public details are scarce: here is what is confirmed and what to watch.
In a Q&A published by IIoT World on October 13, 2026, Denis Leite of Mekatronik argues that AI applications should never write directly to the control system, but instead publish recommendations that an intermediate DataOps layer validates.
A Q&A published by IIoT World on 14 October 2026 gathers answers from Schneider Electric and TwinThread on AI in manufacturing. A practical pattern emerges, but it should be read through the lens of vendors with commercial interests.
Overnight on 11-12 October 2026, a cyberattack drove refrigerators and freezers in several French supermarkets up to 50 °C. A real-world cyber-physical attack that offers practical lessons for anyone running temperature-sensitive facilities.
At the 9th Cybersecurity Forum in Brussels, ENISA, E.DSO, EE-ISAC and ENCS warned that AI and connected energy devices are widening the gap between threats and Europe's ability to respond.
According to Merck and Adlib, AI in pharma stumbles on document integrity: every step that turns a record into AI context must be traceable and verifiable. The issue applies to any regulated plant.
A panel at the Industrial AI Summit 2026, reported by IIoT World on October 9, 2026, names missing contextualization as the main brake on scaling industrial AI. Here is what emerged and what it means for those integrating PLCs, SCADA and historians.
According to a report published on 5 October 2026, Schneider Electric has signed a definitive agreement to acquire PTC, the CAD and PLM software vendor, in an all-cash deal. Here is what is known, what is not, and what is worth watching.
New Rockwell Automation research, reported on October 8, 2026, shows a gap between incidents experienced and confidence in containing them. As AI and IT/OT convergence advance, integration points become the real front line to defend.
A guide sponsored by InfluxData, published on IIoT World on October 5, 2026, urges automotive plants to add a time-series layer alongside their data historians. It is vendor marketing, but the architectural pattern deserves attention.
A panel at the Industrial AI Summit 2026 proposes concrete controls for AI agents in OT systems: unique identities, audit trails, zero trust, and no autonomous agents at Purdue level 0. These are panel opinions, not a standard.
According to Neil Smith of Schneider Electric, consumer packaged goods plants should first connect their OEE data and automate downtime reason codes. Only then does investing in AI make sense.
Amazon Web Services has introduced the Physical AI Toolchain, an open source set of reference architectures that combines AWS infrastructure with NVIDIA robotics software. It covers the full workflow, from robot data to deployment on hardware.
On 2026-10-08 IIoT World published Siemens' and Infinite Uptime's answers to audience questions on prescriptive AI. What emerges is a layered architecture for diagnosis and a cost-based decision model.
On 28 September 2026, Automazione Plus reported the launch of Motoman Next, a Yaskawa platform featuring an autonomous control unit built on Nvidia Jetson and Docker containers. Here is what we know and what it means for integrators and industrial automation.
Cybus CEO Peter Sorowka explains how MCP servers open the plant to LLM agents. Open gaps remain in contextualization standards, permissions and agent identity.
According to Cloudera's 2026 Data Readiness Index, 82% of manufacturers know where their data resides, but only 58% say it is truly governed. The challenge is shifting from models to integration with operational workflows.
ARC Informatique has announced PcVue 17, a new major version of its SCADA/BMS platform focused on energy, performance and cybersecurity. Public details are still scarce, so here is how to read the news.