Siemens: Moving Industrial AI from Assistance to Execution

Siemens' newly-unveiled industrial engineering agent, Eigen, represents a move from AI assistance towards what it calls industrial execution.

The product represents one of the first commercial AI systems capable of planning and executing industrial automation engineering tasks.

Siemens has allocated €1bn (US$1.76bn) to industrial AI development – and Eigen forms part of that investment.

How the agent operates

The Eigen Engineering Agent functions within engineering systems rather than generating recommendations. It writes automation code, configures systems and repeats tasks until benchmarks are achieved.

Vasi Philomin, Executive Vice President of Data and AI at Siemens, says: "The real big shift here is that we are moving away from AI that supports, to AI that actually completes work end-to-end and we're doing this in the context of real world engineering systems."

The system aims to handle repetitive work and deliver validated outputs. This could mean engineers spend time on system-level problems instead of routine tasks.

Siemens has made Eigen available to more than 600,000 users of its Totally Integrated Automation Engineering platform, TIA Portal. The agent is part of the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio and is accessible digitally.

Testing with industrial partners

Austrian company ANDRITZ Metals, Chinese firm CASMT and US-based Prism Systems are serving as pilot customers, with each testing Eigen in different industrial contexts.

"This is an AI assistant truly built for industrial automation," says Kevin Firouzian, Head of Global Strategy & Partnerships at CASMT, which provides AI-driven industrial automation solutions focused on new energy vehicles.

"For our electromechanical braking line, the Eigen Engineering Agent transformed a complex, multi-discipline challenge into a conversational workflow. It simplified setup, reduced specialist handoffs, accelerated delivery and made debugging significantly faster."

John Elias, President at Prism Systems, which offers tech in industrial, marine, manufacturing and IT markets, adds: "Tools like ChatGPT showed us how powerful AI can be and engineers quickly recognised their potential. The challenge has been bringing that capability into real industrial workflows.

"Siemens' latest tools help close that gap, allowing us to apply AI in a way that truly supports engineering and automation."

Addressing engineering workflow issues

Roland Busch, CEO at Siemens, posted on LinkedIn about conversations with engineers at the recent instalment Hannover Messe, where he asked engineers about their biggest challenges.

Issues identified included repetitive mass operations, documentation searches, bulk engineering and parameter changes across drive systems. 

Roland says Eigen was designed to address those exact problems. He claims the agent offers up to 50% higher engineering efficiency, two to five times faster execution and up to 80% higher solution quality.

The Chief Executive dscribes it as "the first true AI colleague for automation engineers" that "plans, writes, validates, delivers, production-ready, inside TIA Portal".

Industrial AI spending patterns

According to McKinsey, AI in manufacturing and supply chain could reduce expenses by up to US$500bn. The consulting giant has argued that AI could introduce a new period of operational efficiency.

Siemens' deployment of Eigen could signal an acceleration in how industrial companies adopt AI on production floors. According to a 2025 McKinsey survey, 93% of 100+ manufacturing COOs plan to increase spending on digital and AI.

A third of those surveyed intend to spend 5% of the cost of goods over the next five years. The data suggests companies are moving from planning to implementation phases with AI technology.