Orchestrated AI agents will help to automate automation
12 May 2025 
Siemens has announced a development of its industrial AI offering that, it says, represents a fundamental shift away from AI assistants that respond to queries, towards truly autonomous agents that execute entire processes without human intervention.
The new AI agent architecture includes an “orchestrator” that deploys a toolbox of specialised agents to solve complex tasks across the entire industrial chain. These agents work intelligently and autonomously – understanding intent, improving performance through continuous learning, and accessing external tools and other agents as needed. Users retain complete control, selecting which tasks they wish to delegate to AI agents.
“With our Industrial AI agents, we’re moving beyond the question-answer paradigm to create systems that can independently execute complete industrial workflows,” explains Rainer Brehm, CEO of Factory Automation at Siemens Digital Industries. “By automating automation itself, we envision productivity increases of up to 50% for our customers – fundamentally changing what’s possible in industrial operations.”
Siemens’ approach distinguishes between Industrial Copilots – the interfaces that users interact with – and the AI agents that power them behind the scenes. Furthermore, the company is developing digital agents, and integrating physical agents, including mobile robots.
This way, Siemens says it is creating a comprehensive multi-AI-agent system where agents are highly connected and work collaboratively. What sets this approach apart is the orchestration of these agents. They work not only with other Siemens’ agents, but also integrate with third-party agents, enabling unprecedented levels of interoperability.
To accelerate adoption and innovation, Siemens is planning to create a marketplace hub for industrial AI agents on its Xcelerator Marketplace platform. This will allow customers to access not only Siemens’ own AI agents, but also those developed by third parties.
The Siemens Industrial Copilot, enhanced by Industrial AI agents, addresses every phase of the industrial chain, across both discrete and process industries:
- Design Copilot Currently available for NX CAD, this accelerates the product design process. Design engineers can navigate complex data, balance trade-offs, and perform multi-domain tasks more efficiently. The AI-powered assistant enables users to ask questions in natural language, quickly access detailed technical insights, and streamline complex design tasks – leading to significant efficiency gains in product development.
- Planning Copilot Currently at the pre-release stage, this optimises production planning, resource allocation, and scheduling through generative AI-powered insights, helping manufacturers to improve efficiency and reduce waste.
- Engineering Copilot Available for TIA Portal, with Managed Service coming in 2025, this allows engineering without repetitive tasks. As the first generative AI-powered product for automation engineering, engineers can use it to generate automation code through natural language inputs, speeding up SCL code generation while reducing errors. In the process sector, the copilot for P&ID Digitalisation has already been tested by several customers. It’s an AI-assisted P&ID detection cloud service to digitalise and consolidate legacy P&ID diagrams.
- Operations Copilot Currently available for the Insights Hub, this Copilot provides insights into entire plants. Siemens is planning to introduce an Operations Copilot for workers at the machine level, which will be available by the end of 2025. This is designed to empower operators, service technicians, and maintenance engineers to work more efficiently by querying machine data and receiving error resolution guidance through natural language. The Copilot can provide machine instructions and operator guidance. In the process sector, the generative AI-based assistant Simatic eaSie, enables technicians and maintenance personnel to access relevant plant and equipment data via chat or voice interaction. This makes operations and maintenance more reliable and safer both in the control room and in the field.
- Services Copilot The Maintenance Copilot Senseye provides maintenance teams with expert-level equipment diagnostics without needing specialised technical knowledge. Recently expanded beyond predictive maintenance to cover the entire maintenance lifecycle, this Copilot supports everything from reactive repairs to predictive and preventive strategies. Pilot implementations have demonstrated an average 25% reduction in reactive maintenance times.
Siemens’ Industrial Copilot is already delivering measurable results both its own plants, and at end-users worldwide. At thyssenkrupp Automation Engineering, for instance, where the technology is being rolled out globally, engineers have reported improvements in code quality and development speed. At Siemens’ Bad Neustadt site, the Insights Hub Production Copilot has transformed manufacturing operations by turning scattered data into actionable insights.
“In a factory environment, our Industrial AI agents connect different copilots and automate workflows across the entire value chain,” says Brehm. “This creates a unified approach that makes industrial AI accessible to everyone, regardless of their technical background or experience level.
“We envision a future where Industrial AI agents work seamlessly alongside human workers, handling routine processes independently while enabling humans to focus on innovation, creativity, and complex problem-solving.”
