Industrial AI and Autonomous Operations

Automation alone is no longer enough. In this conversation, Schneider Electric and McCain explore what makes a factory truly intelligent, from connected and contextualized data to AI-enabled decision-making and more adaptive operations. The session brings together the technology and manufacturer perspectives to show how intelligence can translate into real operational value.

Manufacturing, energy and logistics leaders discuss how they are building real‑time operational visibility across their facilities. Topics include sensor integration, data fabrics, edge analytics and the shift from periodic reporting to live decision‑making. The panel focuses on the capabilities required for achieving partial or full autonomy in factories and industrial networks.

Industrial AI needs more than data – it needs trusted, interoperable and semantically rich information. The session shows how OPC UA, the OPC Foundation Cloud Initiative and new MCP-based AI solutions connect industrial assets, semantic models and AI, including a real-world success story from the tobacco industry where a mandatory OPC UA Companion Specification was already combined with AI. It also highlights how the OPC UA for AI Working Group is making 430+ standardized information models accessible to Generative and Agentic AI.

Discover how the next-generation smart factory is redefining manufacturing through automation, connectivity, and data-driven decision-making. This session highlights the latest technology trends, operational strategies, and market forces shaping the future, offering leaders insights into opportunities to boost productivity, reduce costs, and gain a competitive edge.

Subtitle

• Where a strong production system remains the foundation – and AI is used as a real enabler

Summary

• In many i4.0 initiatives, companies introduced new solutions without always strengthening their production system or understanding the underlying Lean principles. The result was often silo improvements, while overall value stream performance remained unchanged.
• A strong production system, built on leadership, end-to-end thinking and continuous improvement, is still the foundation for sustainable performance.
• With AI, there is a real risk of repeating the same pattern.
• Instead, AI should support Daily Leadership Routines at the shopfloor – enabling real system improvement across the entire value stream.

This panel discusses using digital twins not only as a simulation tool but as an active decision engine. The panel explains how real‑time data streams are ingested, how the twin influences operational parameters in live processes, and how this shift is enabling faster optimisation, safer operating states and reduced downtime. We will cover practical applications, real-world lessons, and measurable business benefits, offering leaders insight into how to deploy digital twins strategically to enhance productivity, reduce risk, and drive innovation.

As industrial AI and autonomous mobile robots become central to modern operations, accurate and accessible location data is emerging as a critical foundation for success. This session explores how the open locating standard, omlox, is helping organisations harmonise access to location data across diverse technologies and vendors. Hosted by PROFIBUS & PROFINET International (PI), omlox enables interoperability, reduces integration complexity, and creates a common framework for location-enabled industrial applications. Discover why open location data is becoming a key pillar of physical AI initiatives, and learn how technology providers and enterprises can leverage omlox to accelerate automation, robotics adoption, and future-ready industrial innovation.

What does it take to let a machine operator ask an AI assistant questions about a running production line and receive answers grounded in live operational data?

Drawing on hands-on experience with an operator-facing AI application in production, this session follows the path from machine connectivity at the industrial edge to AI-assisted decision support. It explores the architectural choices that connect an operator’s question to relevant manufacturing data, including the importance of operational context, data freshness and tool-based access.

Through a practical implementation story, the session examines what these systems can support, where their limitations lie, and lessons for manufacturers developing similar applications. The emphasis is on useful assistance for operators, rather than autonomous machine control.

From warehouse picking to last-mile logistics, robotics is rapidly moving from isolated automation islands to deeply integrated, AI-guided systems that flex with demand, collaborate with human workers, and communicate across the entire supply chain in real time. This session examines where robotic deployment is delivering genuine operational impact today, where the next frontier lies, from autonomous mobile robots to AI-driven manipulation and swarm logistics and what supply chain leaders need to consider when building infrastructure that is robotic-ready from the ground up.

As industries race toward greater automation and intelligence, cyber-physical systems are emerging as the foundation of the next industrial revolution. This session examines how leading organisations are combining IoT, industrial AI, and autonomous technologies to transform connected assets into intelligent, self-optimising systems. From smart factories and critical infrastructure to autonomous operations at the edge, we’ll explore the strategies, architectures, and innovations driving real-time decision-making and operational resilience. Join industry leaders as they share how engineering intelligence into the physical world is unlocking new levels of productivity, agility, and competitive advantage in an increasingly connected economy.

This session explores implementation of AI in supply chains. We will dive into the methodology behind making supply chain AI work at scale, and the lessons learned from implementation inside a major enterprise like Renault while also applying it to smaller, faster-moving businesses. We explore methodological rigour: understanding the data, building the right processes, and aligning teams on a clear vision before writing a single line of code