The demand for switchboards is surging as companies build out AI foundation models that power this new technology, but Siemens wants to do more than supply widgets for AI the German manufacturer also wants to provide AI infrastructure.
The Munich-based company announced earlier this year that it would build its own foundation model that's focused on industry. This pits Siemens against companies spending billions on AI, such as Google and Nvidia, which are betting their massive models can be fine-tuned to specialise in automation and industrial applications. Although the capabilities are underpinned by the big model, the fine-tuning cuts out the clutter, bad information or hallucinations to make the models safe and efficient for industrial use.
Siemens' selling point is that the German company knows industry because it makes things, including robots and gas turbines. It also knows software. More than two decades ago, Siemens and other industrial automation companies such as Honeywell International and Emerson Electric pivoted toward adding more software and data to their products and services.The key will be persuading customers - fellow industrial companies - to contribute their data to the Siemens pot that trains the foundation model.
Siemens isn't saying much about the creation of this model, but the pitch to customers is that the industrial focus will provide the engineering know-how, operations safety and data security that manufacturers require.
Will the tech companies eat up the industrial AI market or will industrial companies with software experience triumph with deeper knowledge of manufacturing? Could this same dynamic play out in other sectors, such as legal or transportation?