451 Digital Industries Insider – July 2025

The industrial landscape is undergoing an architectural transformation, moving beyond incremental digital tool adoption to a fundamental reengineering of operational cores around intelligence, autonomy and resilience. This shift is driven by the convergence of AI, edge computing, digital twins and platform-centric strategies, resulting in a new class of infrastructure that is not only connected but also context-aware, adaptive and increasingly self-optimizing. This edition of our Digital Industries Insider newsletter explores how these technologies are being operationalized, the strategic shifts vendors are making, and how enterprises can navigate this complexity with clarity and confidence. It also includes new insights into key digital industries technology providers, including Honeywell International Inc., Siemens AG, Samsara Inc., Hexagon AB, Schneider Electric SE and Verizon Communications Inc.

The Take

The digital industries landscape is shifting dramatically, driven by the increasing maturity and integration of AI, internet of things and digital twin technologies. This transformation is not merely about adopting new tools, but fundamentally reshaping how industries operate, manage assets and address critical challenges such as sustainability and cybersecurity.

For digital enterprises: Make transformation a core strategy, shifting from experimentation to data-driven execution for measurable return on investment. Address pain points — downtime, energy use, safety — using AI, IoT and digital twins. Align IT/operational technologies, integrate legacy systems and deploy scalable, secure platforms. Prioritize data integration for predictive maintenance, real-time decisions, resilience and intelligent automation.

For digital technology vendors: The market demands intelligent, interoperable ecosystems delivering measurable outcomes, not just modular upgrades. Shift to AI-native platforms with embedded intelligence for proactive decisions and autonomy. Emphasize interoperability, open standards and secure-by-design architectures to unify systems. Build an open API-driven ecosystem, show clear ROI and scale with vertical specialization and strong partner networks.

Digital industry focus: AI-native operational platforms

AI-native operational platforms are redefining the architecture of industrial systems, moving beyond retrofits to provide purpose-built foundations that embed intelligence into every operational layer.

Why do they matter?

These platforms establish AI as the default operating layer for physical operations, transforming static infrastructure into context-aware, adaptive and increasingly self-optimizing systems.

What do they consist of?

Key characteristics and functionalities of AI-native operational platforms include:

➤ Embedding intelligence: They embed intelligence at every level, from control systems to front-line wearables. AI is foundational, not just an additive feature, allowing for AI-driven orchestration across workflows.

➤ Decision orchestration and workflow automation: Rather than simply aggregating data, these platforms are designed to orchestrate decisions, automate workflows and enable predictive interventions at scale.

➤ Shift to distributed intelligence: They shift the center of gravity from centralized control to distributed intelligence, allowing for more real-time responsiveness and efficiency.

➤ Proactive management: They enable enterprises to transition from reactive management to proactive orchestration, reducing operational variability and scaling intelligence across the value chain.

➤ Edge capability and real-time operationalization: These platforms are built to operationalize AI at the edge, in real time and at scale.

Implications

AI-native operational platforms are expanding horizontally and vertically, extending AI to front-line workers, environmental awareness and even decentralized grid management. The implications are critical: AI-native platforms enable real-time orchestration, reduce reliance on specialized labor and unlock new efficiencies across sectors. They shift away from centralized control and toward distributed intelligence. AI-native platforms are not a feature, but a foundation. They enable enterprises to move from reactive management to proactive orchestration, reduce operational variability and scale intelligence across the value chain. The future belongs to those who operationalize AI at the edge, in real time and at scale.

Digital industry views

The impact of electric vehicle charging infrastructure on residential grid systems: The rapidly increasing adoption of electric vehicle charging infrastructure is placing growing pressure on local grid infrastructure — particularly transformers, feeders and distribution systems not originally designed for high-power, distributed loads.

Smart home adoption driven by savings, security and control: As smart home technologies permeate the market, motivations for adoption include energy savings, enhanced safety and security, and the ability to remotely access and control home systems. But, despite clear benefits, manufacturers in the space face hurdles related to consumer perceptions about cost, data security and system complexity.

Building the digital foundation for retail transformation: Retail is undergoing a digital transformation, reshaping the in-store experience through data-driven technologies and intelligent infrastructure. As physical stores take on new roles — from fulfillment hubs to immersive brand experiences — retailers are investing in connected systems that enhance operational efficiency, improve customer engagement and unlock new sources of insight.

Survey insights: Voice of the Enterprise: Internet of Things, The OT Perspective, Use Cases & Outcomes 2025

Pragmatism, more than disruption, drives industrial IoT strategy, according to our most recent operational technologies survey. While industry digitization deployments are widespread and expanding, most organizations remain in early or mid-stage development. The gap between adoption and operational maturity reflects a cautious, incremental approach to transformation, with organizations focused on measurable, near-term outcomes.

➤ IoT adoption is real, but maturity is uneven. Nearly half of organizations (49%) report active IoT deployments beyond pilot stages, yet only 29% say their projects are in an advanced stage. This gap suggests that while IoT is widely adopted, many deployments remain in mid-stage maturity, with strategy and scale still evolving.

➤ Top IoT drivers are cost savings and process optimization, not innovation. Cost reduction (42%) and operational efficiency (41%) are the leading motivators for IoT initiatives, while competitive differentiation and environmental, social and governance goals rank lower. This suggests that most organizations still view IoT through a pragmatic lens rather than as a transformative lever.

➤ Autonomy remains aspirational, despite strong interest. More than 85% of organizations express interest in autonomous operations, with 43% actively planning or deploying and another 44% exploring feasibility. Yet only 5% report full autonomy today, and just 15% operate at a semi-autonomous level. The disconnect between ambition and reality reflects the complexity of integration, cultural resistance and the need for clearer ROI — barriers cited by more than one-third of respondents (see Figure 1).

Digital industries on the road

CIRED 2025 – Geneva

Grid modernization, AI and local energy solutions dominated the agenda at the CIRED 2025 conference. Siemens, Schneider and Huawei Investment & Holding Co. Ltd. showcased intelligent distribution platforms. The GeniLac project demonstrated how Geneva is using lake water for heating and cooling, cutting 5,300 metric tons of CO₂ emissions annually. Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) integration, urban electrification and grid edge intelligence were key themes. The event underscored the strategic importance of the grid edge as a frontier for innovation and resilience. – Beatriz Minamy

Honeywell Users Group – Process Industries (San Antonio) and Connected Buildings (Phoenix)

Honeywell introduced Experion Cognition and Autonomous Operations Assistant, embedding AI into control systems. The company is preparing to spin off its industrial automation business in 2026, signaling a strategic focus on autonomy, cybersecurity and software-defined operations. New offerings include an AI-enabled cybersecurity suite and Experion Cognition, which uses AI and digital twins to provide real-time recommendations and guide decision support for operators. Honeywell Connected Buildings reframes offerings around operational resilience and risk mitigation, built on its Forge platform, transforming fragmented building systems into unified, intelligent infrastructure. This addresses skilled labor shortages, energy management and compliance risks through AI-driven insights. – Rich Karpinski and Zoe Roth

Siemens AI with Purpose Summit – Munich

Siemens framed industrial AI as a collaborative, domain-specific endeavor. The Industrial Copilot and digital twins were central themes, with case studies showing 30% efficiency gains. Speakers addressed cultural adaptation, ethical AI and federated data ecosystems. The summit emphasized that industrial AI is not just a technical challenge — it is an economic and organizational one. – Johan Vermij and Alex Johnston

Samsara Beyond 2025 – San Diego

Samsara unveiled more than a dozen AI-powered solutions, including maintenance automation, route optimization and the Samsara Wearable. The platform's evolution into an AI-native system of record was a key theme, supported by strategic partnerships and ecosystem expansion. The event reinforced Samsara's ambition to become the central nervous system for physical operations. – Rich Karpinski

Hexagon LIVE – Las Vegas

Hexagon announced the planned spinoff of a unit dubbed Turtle Beach Corp., which will consolidate existing software divisions into a stand-alone entity focused on asset life-cycle intelligence and public safety. The move positions Turtle Beach to compete directly with SaaS-native infrastructure platforms. The event also showcased the AEON humanoid robot and HxGN dC3 video intelligence platform, emphasizing industrial autonomy and physical security.– Zoe Roth

10 Digital Industries developments

In line with this issue's Digital Industry focus, technology vendors are enhancing their offerings by embedding AI, extending digital twin capabilities and strengthening cybersecurity to meet the complex demands of industrial digitization and infrastructure modernization.

➤ Verizon evolved ThingSpace into a global orchestration platform, integrating edge compute, AI and eSIM provisioning for industrial deployments. The platform now supports non-cellular endpoints and multicloud integration, positioning Verizon as a full-stack enabler of digital transformation. Its IoT offerings are augmented by an expanding AI, edge and platform focus, pivoting from pure connectivity to full-stack solution enablement, with pre-packaged solutions such as Sensor Insights and Video Insights for real-time intelligence at the edge.

➤ Schneider Electric integrated Planon Corp. into EcoStruxure to unify building operations and workplace management, targeting datacenters, healthcare and commercial real estate. The platform supports AI-driven HVAC optimization, occupancy-based control and dynamic tariff integration. EcoStruxure Building advances as a digital platform for buildings, aiming to provide digital services and insights atop existing hardware, with strategic growth areas in datacenters and smart hospital solutions.

➤ Bentley Systems Inc. advanced its iTwin platform and Cesium for city-scale modeling, emphasizing open data and federated infrastructure intelligence. The company is enabling cities to unify global information systems (GIS), building information management (BIM) and IoT data into actionable digital twins. Bentley Systems is doubling down on its engineering-first foundation, with its iTwin platform unifying disparate data into common models to enable collaboration and faster decision-making for infrastructure resilience.

➤ Digital Twin Consortium launched capability frameworks and testbeds to guide intelligent twin deployments and AI agent integration. The consortium is laying the groundwork for interoperable, scalable digital twin ecosystems, such as the Virtual Twins for Smart Factory Innovation.

➤ Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ) aims to facilitate automotive connectivity with its Cradlepoint wireless WAN offerings. These ruggedized, vehicle-ready tools support ubiquitous connectivity for real-time data processing and system management, enhanced by 5G and AI capabilities.

➤ The new XYN brand from Sony Group Corp. focuses on 3D spatial content creation and consumption, complementing Sony's portfolio for a 3D computer graphics-based future. Its XYN Motion Studio and Spatial Reality Display target "prosumers" in filmmaking, games and industrial design; the products are positioned as essential tools for creating content for digital twins and industrial metaverse applications.

➤ The gridADAPT platform from Rhizome Data Inc. enables utilities to justify resilience investments with asset-level climate risk modeling. The platform integrates satellite imagery, AI and digital twins to deliver predictive insights at kilometer-scale resolution. It uses AI and machine learning to evaluate asset fragility under evolving climate stressors, supporting data-backed investment decisions for infrastructure retrofits.

➤ Eclypsium Inc. expanded its platform to datacenters, offering deep firmware analysis, virtual patching, and counterfeit detection for AI infrastructure. The company is addressing a critical blind spot in cybersecurity as datacenters become national infrastructure.

➤ Fidra Energy is developing 3.15 GW of grid-scale battery storage in the UK, targeting 10 GW by 2030, to support frequency regulation and renewable energy integration. The company is positioning itself as a cornerstone of grid flexibility in a decarbonizing Europe.

➤ Phoenix Contact GmbH & Co. KG promoted direct-current (DC) infrastructure as essential for sector coupling and energy efficiency, with products such as CHARX and Contactron ELR HDC. The company is advocating for a rethinking of grid architecture focused on DC power.

These developments collectively illustrate a dynamic and rapidly maturing digital industry, where the integration of AI, IoT and digital twins represents not just a technological upgrade but a fundamental re-architecting of operational strategy for a more intelligent, autonomous and resilient future.