Industrial automation and AI (Illustration: Getty Creatives)
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Digital solutions underpinned by AI or “artificial intelligence” are not just finding their place at the heart of the world’s industrial and manufacturing complex, but appear to be reshaping how industries run, compete and post growth. That’s if their current levels of technological proliferation are anything to go by.
In 2024, the industrial AI and automation business was estimated to be worth at least $200 billion, premised on a range of valuation methodologies deployed by multiple consultancies and data aggregators. Investment in core industrial AI solutions accounted for over a fifth of that headline figure, according to some forecasters.
Looking ahead, spending on industrial AI is tipped to reach $400 billion, if not more, by 2030, at a compound annual growth rate of at least 8%, depending on which forecaster you rely on.
Furthermore, its not just financial data on industrial AI that’s indicative of the approaching horizon – habits, dependencies and processes are rapidly evolving.
A Multibillion Dollar Tussle
According to Schneider Electric, one of the world’s largest energy management and industrial automation firms, there has been a 78% growth in AI usage in organizations, if this year’s data is compared to usage levels in 2020.
And there are three times as many people using AI tools in 2025 versus 2020, the company said at its recently concluded Innovation Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Offering forward projections at the event, Schneider Electric CEO Olivier Blum also predicted the deployment of three times as many IoT or “internet of things” devices banking on AI by the end of the decade. There are two strands of AI – generative and agentic.
Generative AI systems are capable of using models that learn from inputted data characteristics and structures to produce tailored outputs. Agentic AI goes beyond merely reacting to instructions but being proactive and capable of complex problem-solving with limited human intervention.
While generative AI is more prominent in industrial discourse, Abu Dhabi’s state-owned energy company ADNOC surprised the energy sector by announcing in November last year that it had started a pilot to deploy agentic AI in partnership with Microsoft and AiQ.
But unsurprisingly, the major industrial software vendors ABB, Emerson, Honeywell, Schneider Electric and Yokogawa, are all already fiercely competing in a fast growing multibillion dollar market for AI-powered platforms offering intelligent operational ecosystems, real-time insights, systems resilience, and, of course, throughput efficiencies.
Not Just Industries, Whole Countries Are At it
With the AI race on, its not just industries but whole countries are at it. All G7 nations have made overt moves toward AI infrastructure, and within the OECD practically all governments have done so too, alongside China and India.
Entire supercomputers are being dedicated in service of AI. Denmark offers the latest case in point. It launched its first AI supercomputer Gefion, an NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD, named after a goddess in Danish mythology, in October 2024.
It’s operated by the Danish Centre for AI Innovation, a company funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and by Export and Investment Fund of Denmark.
Dr Nadia Carlsten, CEO of DCAI, said her team’s core focus is to lower the barrier to access AI. “We welcome customers not just from enterprises, but startups and academia as well with the relevant safeguards in place. The first onboarding began in January.
“Our ultimate objective is not just AI accessibility, but the acceleration of AI research, innovation and wider collaboration that is urgently needed in this space across Europe in general, and Denmark in particular.”
DCAI is now in the process of scaling the system both in terms of size and the types of AI enabling services it offers, said Ali Syed, SVP of Infrastructure, DCAI.
“At the end of the day, what we are trying to do is build an ecosystem of Danish companies that can both help nurture as well as avail this infrastructure, while staying competitive in a vibrant but tough AI landscape.”
The supercomputer is driven by 1,528 NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs and interconnected using NVIDIA Quantum-2 InfiniBand networking. Schneider Electric is addressing the “chip to chilling” aspect of Gefion as a DCAI partner, said Sebastian Bøtcher, sales director, secure power, at Schneider Electric Denmark.
“As an energy management and digital solution provider, we help build new datacenters of the future. We have been trusted advisers to DCAI and have been collaborating for past three years.”
Bøtcher added that the learnings from projects like Gefion were “mission critical” because more than 50% of datacenter growth in the past five years has been driven by AI.
Industrial AI spending in sectors such as automotive, pharmaceuticals and urban planning is growing tremendously. Current trends suggest energy companies are not holding back any longer, albeit after a relatively slow start compared to other sector.
World’s Largest Energy Event Goes Big On AI
All of the world’s top 20 integrated oil and gas, power and utilities, and renewable energy companies by market capitalisation have an AI strategy in place.
That’s driving sustainability and efficiency in traditional energy and raising the profile and performance of climate-tech. Improved throughput at refineries, predictive maintenance at power plants, optimised flow rates of oil from rigs to pipelines and smart grids are just some demonstrable cross-sector use cases.
It’s why one of the world’s largest energy event ADIPEC, being held in Abu Dhabi from November 3 to 6 has been constantly increasing its AI exhibition space and conference content for a number of years now, according to Christopher Hudson, president of dmgevents, the organizer of the event.
“We’ve always had a huge digitalization exhibition hall that has been growing for a number of years. However, of late, AI has picked up tremendously and that’s reflected in what we do at ADIPEC.”
Hudson said the event’s dedicated “AI Zone” will showcase the “integral and transformative role” of AI solutions in the energy and industrials space, through a fully immersive experience. “It will explore how intelligence – both human and artificial – is redefining energy systems, empowering people and enabling bold, cross-sector disruption.”
The exhibition space allocated to the zone will go up this year to 3,150 square meters from last year’s 2275 square meters. “That’s a dedicated area layered on top of the display areas of the world’s leading industrial software vendors showcasing their own AI solutions at their respective exhibition hubs all around ADIPEC.”
Rubbing shoulders with umpteen startups at the event would be co-host AiQ, and strategic AI partners ranging from IBM and Microsoft to EY and SLB.
There is no shortage of both enthisiasts as well as skeptics when it comes to AI. However, all of this does not feel like a fad or a bubble that’s about to burst. Rather it appears more and more like an indicator of the inexorable direction of travel toward an AI premised future.