Siemens entry aims to make agentic AI more affordable for SMBs

Siemens is claiming that its new entry into the agentic AI software market can shorten downtime in engineering and manufacturing reconfigurations—which take nearly 70% of a robot’s cost cycle—therefore making the machines more affordable for small to medium-size businesses in addition to improving factory floor operations. 

The company pitched its Eigen Engineering Agent as a brand-agnostic agentic AI, offering that the software product can replace manual coding or programming for programmable logic controllers (PLC), distributed control systems (DCS) and robotics applications, updating code or instructions to reflect new priorities and goals.

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Siemens is making these claims as manufacturers across numerous verticals grapple with how to successfully implement AI agents, particularly with data integration and communication across company teams. As companies integrate AI agents with varying levels of success, they also experience the costs associated with failed phase-in strategies.  

However, Siemens claimed Eigen can actually make AI more affordable for small companies. According to Rainer Brehm, CEO of Siemens’ automation business and CTO for Siemens Digital Industries, Siemens in its operations sees that engineering and reconfigurations constitute 70% of the entire lifecycle cost of a robot. 

If, however, an AI agent like Eigen can shorten the time needed to make these adjustments, it makes the robot more efficient, and SMBs might be better able to afford deploying the technology.

“There’s a kind of new age of automation arising, because [with AI assistance to program robots and PLCs] means you could suddenly automate much smaller lot sizes on a good return of investment,” Brehm said. 

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Ujjwal Kumar, president of the Americas for Siemens’ Digital Industries Automation, said the AI agent adds orchestration layers to existing technologies for companies to use. 

"All AI is doing is leveraging the core physics of that robot and the PLCs, your different sensing technologies. ... All AI is doing is [placing] the orchestration layer on top of that. That orchestration layer will become more and more critical for faster deployment,” Kumar said.

He also explained that Eigen can help manufacturers deal with a lack of coders and programmers.

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“We don’t attract the best of the programmers to the manufacturing floor. … So, getting programmers to come and code our PLCs or robotic systems? That was a scale-up bottleneck. And then add to that, the new generation of people who are coming in, they just know how to do vibe coding. They will not do syntax-based coding anymore,” Kumar said. 

"The AI should be able to learn and reconfigure at a much faster rate than what was possible, say, five years back."

Humans must always remain in the loop, however, Kumar said. Agentic AI is like an orchestra and humans are its conductors. 

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Siemens is also intending to expand this technology to more companies as it distributes its AI agents and capabilities. 

Brehm added: "We are very much partnering with [tech giants like Microsoft, NVIDIA and AWS] because they see the next big thing in industry, that AI will move out of the digital pure world and into industry."