How will AI transform industrial workplaces in 2025? According to industry experts, AI-driven digital twins, generative engineering and extended realities will take hold to provide improved efficiency and enhanced workforce collaboration this year. AI in engineering and manufacturing Jacomo Corbo, co-founder & CEO, PhysicsX “In 2025, AI-first digital engineering solutions will be a major […]
How will AI transform industrial workplaces in 2025? According to industry experts, AI-driven digital twins, generative engineering and extended realities will take hold to provide improved efficiency and enhanced workforce collaboration this year.
AI in engineering and manufacturing
Jacomo Corbo, co-founder & CEO, PhysicsX
“In 2025, AI-first digital engineering solutions will be a major growth opportunity, accelerating physics simulation, enabling generative engineering, and streamlining complex, time-consuming processes—removing key bottlenecks in clean energy and advanced manufacturing.”
Jacomo Corbo, co-founder & CEO, PhysicsX
Frank Kaufmann, director of technical account management, automotive, Ansys
“Physics-based simulation and AI are driving a revolution that is already shortening traditional automotive development processes from four to two years or less. “Manufacturers who previously relied on physical prototypes will have to rethink their approach in the coming years.
“The future belongs to those hybrid models that combine the precision of physics-based simulations with the speed and learning ability of AI. This enables engineers to test hundreds of design variants in minutes and make decisions almost in real-time.”
Lucian Boldea, CEO, Honeywell Industrial Automation
“This year we’ll continue to see an uptick in AI solutions that are custom-built for industry use cases due to their complexity. In the energy industry—from production to refinement to distribution—accurate, reliable, and timely data is critical where even minor errors can lead to severe consequences. Off-the-shelf AI solutions won’t solve the challenges the industrial sector is facing.”
Richard Ahlfeld, founder & CEO, Monolith
“AI will play a much larger role in battery test labs, rapidly analysing vast data sets on composition, validation, and manufacturing. An AI-driven ‘high throughput lab’ will streamline innovation by optimising test plans, identifying better designs, and reducing the need for excessive prototyping.”
Richard Ahlfeld, founder & CEO, Monolith
AI-Driven digital twins and extended reality
Prith Banerjee, CTO, Ansys
“Traditional simulations take hours, or even days – but AI will reduce these times to seconds. And in 2025 we’ll really begin to see this transformation evolve, driven by AI’s ability to continuously learn from real-world data, improving predictive accuracy and enabling real-time decision-making.
“In sectors like aerospace and automotive, AI will enable digital twins to achieve up to 99% predictive accuracy, drastically reducing costly errors. Hybrid models combining AI and physics-based simulations will be key, ensuring AI-generated predictions remain grounded in the laws of physics.”
Tomer Zuker, VP marketing, D-ID
“The evolution of AI in 2024 laid the foundation for creating hyper-realistic digital twins through advanced avatars. In 2025, we expect these digital twins to become a widespread phenomenon, with individuals in various industries adopting them for specialised purposes. These avatars can be trained in specific knowledge domains, programmed with unique traits and capabilities, and utilised to perform tasks on behalf of their human counterparts. Digital twins will become an integral part of our digital identity—comparable to our social media profiles—but with far greater functionality.”
Johannes Maunz, VP of AI, Hexagon
“2025 will see a significant rise in the use of digital twins across various industries. AI can reduce the time and cost taken to keep a digital twin up-to-date and enable users to visualise results in a clearer way. The most attractive digital twins use LLMs to let people on-site or in the field access data in an easier form. The future of robotics and automation is rooted in spatial data, and digital twins are a critical component of this shift.”
Johannes Maunz, VP of AI, Hexagon
Natasha Avelange, global extended reality manager, TNA Solutions
“While the manufacturing sector remains focused on Industry 4.0 and IoT advances, the first significant strides in Industry 5.0 are already taking place. Industry 5.0 emphasises the role of industry in enhancing societal welfare by focusing on employee well-being and integrating human creativity with advanced technology.
“In 2025, digital twins and extended reality (XR) solutions are set to influence manufacturing…These technologies will enhance workforce engagement, training employees in risk-free virtual environments, and helping manufacturers achieve a balance between technological progress, human well-being, and sustainability.”
Natasha Avelange, global extended reality manager, TNA solutions
