Recently, we attended Realize LIVE 2025 events in both Detroit and Amsterdam. During these events, Siemens presented a clear and cohesive vision for helping customers manage increasing product complexity through digital transformation. This vision incorporates AI, cloud technology, a comprehensive digital twin, and an industry-tailored digital threads.

Across multiple presentations, starting with the vision shared by Siemens Digital Industries Software CEO Tony Hemmelgarn, Siemens positioned itself as a company dedicated to solving practical engineering challenges while embedding intelligence directly into workflows, integrating advanced simulation and AI, and closing the loop between design, manufacturing, and operations.

It was a wide-ranging program, but several consistent themes demonstrated how Siemens plans to realize this vision. While we can’t cover everything discussed during the multi-day event, here are some highlights that stood out to us.

Key Themes

1. Tackling the Fundamentals

While new technologies like AI and immersive engineering draw attention, Tony Hemmelgarn reminded attendees that some of the most critical engineering challenges are deceptively “unsexy.” He highlighted BOM management as an example. “It’s not the most glamorous part of what we do,” he said, “but if you can’t manage your BOMs effectively, you can’t make the right product, at the right time, at the right cost.”

BOM management has become increasingly complex due to product variation, shorter cycles, and cross-domain dependencies. By embedding BOMs into the digital thread and connecting them to design, simulation, and manufacturing execution, service, and even supply chain, Siemens aims to prevent data mismatches and costly downstream errors. They highlighted several Teamcenter enhancements they’ve worked on:

• A 20x performance improvement over the past 18–24 months.
• A rules-based configurator that helps companies like GM validate buildable vehicle configurations.
• Out-of-the-box variant management tools replace years of costly customization in sectors such as mobile devices.

This focus on fundamental engineering execution indicates Siemens’ commitment to solving core problems while also delivering next-generation technology.

2. AI as an Embedded Capability

Siemens positioned AI as an embedded capability that “works in the background,” enhancing productivity without requiring process changes. Instead of being offered as a separate product line, AI is integrated throughout the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio, manifesting in generative design, automated simulation setup, manufacturability checks, and lifecycle intelligence, among many other areas.

We have been monitoring AI adoption, usage, and benefits through multiple studies. In our annual survey, Executive Strategies for Sustainable Business Success 2025, we found that since 2024, the percentage of companies reporting business value from AI has increased by an impressive 62%. In fact, AI was the technology most frequently cited as providing substantial value. Another research study, Making Manufacturing Analytics and AI Matter, indicated that AI is the technology most likely to yield a rapid time to benefit compared to others.

Tony shared an example of AI-enabled BOM management, “We asked Teamcenter to analyze warranty hotspots. AI interpreted severity and growth potential, pinpointed a problematic connector, created a change request, assessed supply chain risks, and found the best replacement, all automatically documented and visible to stakeholders.”

This flow, from detection to resolution, demonstrates how Siemens is incorporating AI to accelerate decision-making, break down silos, and turn data into actionable insight. Joe Bohman further illustrated these capabilities by describing AI-assisted design optimization that happens in real time and design validation that flags production risks.

Tech-Clarity’s research, The Business Value of Reducing Engineering Time Wasters, found that 96% of surveyed companies acknowledge that lost engineering productivity leads to significant business costs due to missed deadlines, higher expenses, decreased innovation, and poor quality. AI-embedded workflows like this show substantial potential for overcoming these challenges.

3. Simulation at the Core

Speakers repeatedly emphasized that simulation is central to Siemens’ comprehensive digital twin strategy, enabling companies to validate, optimize, and certify designs virtually, before committing to the physical product or prototype. The Simcenter portfolio supports multi-physics, system-level, high-fidelity simulation, with applications spanning multiple industries such as:

• Automotive: Thermal management and aerodynamics optimization with Simcenter Amesim and Simcenter STAR-CCM+ to validate EV powertrains.
• Aerospace: Structural and aerodynamic optimization for next-generation aircraft.
• Medtech: Simulating surgical device performance and fluid dynamics in medical instruments to validate compliance.
• Semiconductor: Thermal and structural analysis for chip packaging, ensuring reliability in high-density designs.

The recent Altair acquisition adds electromagnetic modeling and AI-driven process optimization, complementing Simcenter’s existing capabilities. Altair SimSolid is a particularly exciting addition, as it eliminates the time-consuming geometry preparation and meshing process for analysis, providing design engineers with easier access to simulation for design guidance. During the Media and Analyst session, they also demonstrated simulation capabilities beyond Simcenter in EDA to support semiconductor lifecycle management and board design optimization.

4. The Digital Thread and the Comprehensive Digital Twin

At the core of Siemens’ vision is the digital thread, an execution framework that links design, sourcing, simulation, manufacturing, supply chain, and service data in a cohesive flow. This framework also serves as the foundation for Siemens’ comprehensive digital twin, which not only represents the product, but also encompasses production processes and operational behavior over time.

Siemens presented digital thread use cases spanning multiple industries, for example:

• Automotive: Thermal management and aerodynamics optimization with Simcenter Amesim and Simcenter STAR-CCM+ to validate EV powertrains.
• Aerospace: Structural and aerodynamic optimization for next-generation aircraft.
• Medtech: Simulating surgical device performance and fluid dynamics in medical instruments to validate compliance.
• Semiconductor: Thermal and structural analysis for chip packaging, ensuring reliability in high-density designs.

The key takeaway is that data should not merely be stored; it must be connected, contextualized, and utilized to inform better decisions throughout the product lifecycle.

5. Immersive Engineering and Human-Centered Design

During the NX keynote, Robert Haubrock introduced Immersive Engineering featuring a purpose-built Sony headset with “4K resolution per eye,” which is available now. This resolution exceeds what the human eye typically perceives. Siemens views this technology as a tool for more intuitive design reviews, allowing engineers to walk through models, identify spatial issues, and collaborate in real-time. Bob emphasized, “The only way to understand it is to put it on your head.” Beyond enhancing productivity, Siemens positions these immersive tools as appealing to the next generation of engineers, accustomed to interactive, high-fidelity experiences from the world of gaming. Our surveys and discussions with manufacturers show that AR/VR adoption is still low, but we believe it can provide significant value, especially as innovations around complementary technologies grow.

6. Modular Access and Broader Reach

Siemens highlighted the scalability of its design platform, Designcenter, which encompasses both NX and Solid Edge. For more on Designcenter, see our previous commentary in A Siemens NX Update: Extending Access and MBE. With this platform, the company is committed to making advanced capabilities more accessible by offering value-based licensing models. This approach allows customers to access features without investing in full enterprise suites.

Further, Siemens continues solidifying its position as a foundational technology provider, claiming that over 70% of the global solid modeling market relies on its PLM Components technology, including its kernel, Parasolid, also common across both Solid Edge and NX. This strategy promotes openness with third-party applications, facilitating seamless data flow between systems that use the same kernel. Additionally, this foundation supports AI-based applications that can leverage data across various platforms and tools.

7. Extending Value with Low-Code

Siemens continues to expand access to digital capabilities through Mendix, its low-code application development environment. Mendix enables non-IT specialists to create applications, adapt core applications, automate workflows, and integrate data. By doing so, low-code technology broadens the reach of the digital thread across the enterprise, accelerates transformation, and allows more stakeholders to participate in problem-solving. Mendix extends Siemens Xcelerator capabilities and promotes further adoption by allowing companies to develop purpose-built, composable applications to meet the unique needs of their people. For more of our analysis on Mendix please see Adapt and Extend Applications with Mendix.

8. Cloud Strategy

Siemens’ cloud vision centers on delivering its Siemens Xcelerator portfolio as SaaS, with offerings such as NX X, Teamcenter X, and other “X” solutions. Their approach focuses on flexibility, scalability, and continuous updates, eliminating the IT overhead associated with traditional deployments. By hosting design, engineering, and manufacturing solutions in a secure, integrated cloud environment, Siemens aims to enhance collaboration, simplify adoption, and make emerging technologies like AI more readily available to customers. Tech-Clarity’s research, The Business Value of Reducing Engineering Time Wasters, respondents reported that cloud-based solutions were implemented in nearly 50% less time than non-cloud alternatives. Further, 78% of those who described their implementation as “easy” had deployed a cloud-based solution.

Strategic Implications

In summary, here are some key strategic implications from the vision presented at the events:

• Embedded AI: This approach utilizes AI as an engineering tool to enhance existing workflows rather than replace them.
• Simulation-First Design: This strengthens Siemens’ digital twin strategy, bolstered by the recent Altair acquisition.
• Attention to Fundamentals: Emphasizing basics like Bill of Materials (BOMs) helps reinforce credibility with engineering teams.
• Immersive Tools: These tools have the potential to accelerate collaboration and attract new talent; however, they will need to demonstrate proven return on investment (ROI).
• Digital Thread + Comprehensive Digital Twin: This combination creates a systems-of-systems advantage that may make it difficult for point solutions to compete.
• Cloud-First Delivery: This approach may facilitate faster adoption of AI and simulation technologies while minimizing IT friction.

Our Take

One of the notable aspects of Siemens’ presentations was the balance between forward-looking innovation and the practical realities of day-to-day engineering. Exciting concepts like high-fidelity simulation, AI-assisted design, and immersive virtual reality (VR) were complemented by a strong emphasis on BOM management and the execution framework of the digital thread. This demonstrates Siemens’ understanding that attention to fundamental aspects is just as important as pursuing breakthroughs.

We look forward to seeing how Siemens evolves its vision into mainstream engineering practices, especially with the exciting developments in physics AI that promise to make simulation tools even more accessible.

Tech-Clarity’s research, How to Engineer Innovation, found that an overwhelming 99% of respondents find benefits in using simulation to explore design ideas to innovate and optimize designs in less time. Still, most agree that they could leverage simulation more effectively than they currently do. Integrating AI could be a key factor in unlocking even greater value from simulation.

Thanks

Thank you to Shaun Ennis, Heike Hofmann, and Julia Martin for the invitation and all the coordination to ensure we made the most of our time at the event. We’d also like to extend a special thanks to Brenda Discher, George Rendell, Tom Spangler, S. Ravi Shankar, Jean Claude Ercolanelli, and Jennifer Ferello for their thoughtful discussions and meeting with us one-on-one to answer our questions.