Dassault Systèmes’ Strategic Evolution
We recently had the opportunity to attend an invitation-only analyst event in Paris. The event offered general updates on the Dassault Systèmes business, brand news, and industry experiences. Some of the most important discussions, however, revolved around their new business strategy. Although the strategy was announced earlier this year, this was our first chance to hear about it in more detail from Dassault Systèmes leadership, including CEO Pascal Daloz.
This is not the first time we’ve been introduced to one of their visionary shifts. Dassault Systèmes intentionally reinvents themselves about every seven years. The path has taken them from their 3D modeling roots to their current, much broader role in the industry. Today, that includes much more than mechanical design, encompassing “product, nature, and life,” including significant focus on life sciences. The company takes this process seriously, following a forward-looking, structured process to go beyond what their customers are asking for today and setting their sights on what they believe their customers will need in the future. The graphic below highlights the transitions along their 40+ year journey.
We expect this announcement to receive a mixed reception from customers. Dassault Systèmes is not afraid to be a little ahead of their customers. We distinctly remember the unveiling of the 3D Experience vision. The strategy was met with a combination of reactions, with many customers more focused on what they need from their products today. But Dassault Systèmes’ view of “V+R” combining virtual and reality was prescient and led them down the path to a robust collection of digital twins, what they call “virtual twins,” which connect the virtual, model-based reality with the physical reality. At the same time, they have transitioned from an engineering software company to a “scientific company.” This furthers their ability to add value in traditional industries but also frees them to continue to grow in other realms including life sciences.
3D UNIV+RSES
The new strategy, 3D UNIV+RSES, builds on Dassault Systèmes’ strengths. They see the strategy, which is pronounced as “3D Universes,” as recreating themselves for what they see as the “generative economy,” where “IP is the new currency.” The goal is no longer to stop at representing the real world virtually, but begin to generate it. This requires a strong combination of modeling, simulation, and AI.
EVP Industry, Marketing & Sustainability, Corporate Strategy & Platform Transformation Elisa Prisner-Levyne shared details of the strategy. She explained that representative modeling will give way to living virtual models that learn and evolve over time. This continued connection between the virtual and real leverages their position as a scientific company and their industrial knowledge and knowhow. The goal is to create a feedback loop so that each experience generates new knowledge.
To deliver this solution, they no longer see themselves as just a software company. Instead, they are now positioning themselves as “The Industry Trusted IP Generation & Management Company.” This is intentional to recognize the growing value of intellectual property, including both physical and digital knowledge. This focus on IP brings significant focus on cybersecurity and sovereignty, key factors to support corporate knowledge and knowhow which are high business priorities according to our research on long-term business success. Further, they are moving beyond the term Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) to IP Lifecycle Management (IPLM), reflecting their vision to protect and master IP on their platform.
They have unveiled their vision for 3D UNIV+RSES, comprised of seven pillars supported by the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform:
- Virtual twin
- EXPERIENCE
- Generative Experience
- Virtual Companion
- Cycle of life
- Sense computing
- Knowledge and Know-how Platform
These pillars are designed to help Dassault Systèmes’ clients create “Generative V+R Experiences” by leveraging AI built for Industries. This strategy relies heavily on the transition of computing to incorporate more artificial intelligence, and Dassault Systèmes is making significant investments in that direction.
Dassault Systèmes is Investing in Industry-Savvy AI
A key enabler for 3D UNIV+RSES is AI. EVP Research & Development Florence Hu shared more details on Dassault Systèmes’ plans in this area. She explained that the AI they deliver will include:
- Trustable Generativity
- Science-based Technologies
- Industry AI-Operations
They also plan for their approach, “AI for Industries,” to be trustable, secure, and sovereign. This is essential in today’s current environment. They will do this by hosting AI on their own sovereign cloud.
Dassault Systèmes plans to roll out AI to complement humans, not substitute for them, with virtual companions. Florence provided several examples of “Industry Companions,” including a regulatory companion that can generatively compile data from documents, powered by AI. She explained that companions will be heavily specialized on tasks and rolled out in waves across all brands. The companion introduction will start with companions that assist and teach, will then expand to those that work with company employees, and expand to agents that actively orchestrate and organize information and processes. In other words, “Help me, teach me, do it for me.”
EVP Corporate Research and Sciences Patrick Jonhson furthered the discussion by discussing how they plan to elevate generative AI to generate industrial grade knowledge and knowhow by creating generative V+R Experiences. Not only will Dassault Systèmes use leading commercially available models, they will also create their own industrial models based on 3DS ontologies built from over 30 years of industrial experience across industries. To do this, they plan to leverage the customer industrial corpus (data). They explained that customers own their data, which will be protected, while Dassault Systèmes will leverage the ontology, for example data packaged in roles, available as metadata separate from customer data. They will maintain a lineage graph on any process, such as a learning or combining processes, to trace the information AI is leveraging
When we asked how much of the AI progress we’ve seen demonstrated is available and adopted, they said that it has “already started in 2025.”
More Than We Can Share
Although the event is only two days, there is always much more presented than we have time to share. Dassault Systèmes brought together leaders from across their brands and industries to share great customer stories, including traditional manufacturing customers like Volkswagen Group, Renault Group, and Airbus. They also highlighted Enterprise, Architecture, and Construction (EAC) customers EDF Hinkley Point C, a nuclear facility, and MINERVE for train stations. AEC is a targeted growth area for Dassault Systèmes with significant room for expansion. They also shared stories from Life Sciences companies, including Precision Therapies and Sanofi, showcasing the success of their acquisitions that furthered prior strategies beyond manufacturing to product, nature, and life, where they now have a leadership position.
Dassault Systèmes also announced that they are moving beyond software delivery to work directly with companies. They are delivering what they call “V+R Consulting,” a consulting practice toward generative. Beyond generative work, we also heard examples of scientific work done collaboratively between Dassault Systèmes and customers, showing their willingness to engage to further knowledge and knowhow.
We should also mention that Group CFO Dr. Rouven B. shared impressive financial updates, showing continued growth in subscription, cloud adoption, and 3DEXPERIENCE revenue. One of the most surprising statements he made is that he sees an incremental revenue opportunity of 1 billion euros over the next five years as AI brings “pull through” for 3DEXPERIENCE and the cloud.
Our Take
We realize that these visions are sometimes hard to digest and will require time for customers to understand how it will impact the products and services they rely on Dassault Systèmes for. But the direction is compelling, and we’re excited about what they are doing next. We look forward to seeing them continue to exploit a broader view than their peers in the industry, serving three distinct sectors; Manufacturing, Life Sciences & Healthcare, and Infrastructure & Cities.
We look forward to IP Lifecycle management supporting knowledge and knowhow in addition to products and services with robust cybersecurity and sovereignty, generative experiences supporting the industrial metaverse, and their major investments in AI intended to deliver a trusted environment for industrial AI through the combination of 3DEXPERIENCE and 3D UNIV+RSES. We look forward to following their progress.
Thank You
Dassault Systèmes invests a lot of effort and their executives’ time to make sure analysts understand their strategy. Always a pleasure to reconnect with Pascal Daloz and his team, and it was a nice surprise to enjoy a special appearance by former CEO and current Executive Chairman Bernard Charles.Thank you Joe Horine, Kurt Chen, and the rest of the analyst and events team for the invitation and for putting on an excellent event.