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How Microsoft is Changing the Industrial Metaverse

See how Rockwell Automation and Microsoft are using generative AI, ChatGPT and other digitized tools to build better products and processes for customers.

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Man holding digital brain over a laptop, representing artificial intelligence and other digitized technologies.

By Jim Montague, Executive Editor of Control magazine and Contributing Editor to The Journal

It’s always nice to travel with someone who knows a new town or the local terrain — and the metaverse

and its neighboring ecosystems are no exception.

So, as part of his opening address at the 2023 Automation Fair® event last November, Rockwell Automation chairman and CEO Blake Moret talked with Judson Althoff, chief commercial officer at Strategic Alliance Partner Microsoft

, about artificial intelligence (AI), generative AI
, ChatGPT and other forms of digitalization that Rockwell Automation is quickly turning to its advantage for the benefit of its customers.

“The industrial metaverse can have real-world impacts on manufacturing to build better products and processes,” Althoff said. “The metaverse is the culmination of combining technologies that can simulate any manufacturing request and do it in the cloud or elsewhere.”

Generative AI Is Here

He added that Microsoft has seen measurable performance gains from using generative AI. These were achieved in 13-week engagements, where Microsoft moved into brownfield and greenfield applications in plants and improved sensing, reduced use of resources and achieved other gains.

“This isn’t just the hype cycle, and if you don’t engage, you’ll likely fall behind,” he continued.

“A year ago, many people were treating generative AI like black magic and hogwash. However, that disbelief quickly turned to fear because three months ago, they were all saying, ‘the AI robots are taking over the world!’ Now, many users are coming in with hundreds of ideas about what they can do with generative AI and ChatGPT, whether it’s individual productivity or democratizing data.”

Althoff reported that consequently, Microsoft is integrating generative AI into all its products. It’s even using generative AI to write its own code, so it can get those products to market quicker.

Likewise, Moret added that Rockwell Automation is adding generative AI copilots to its configurations and other tools.

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“We’re adding generative AI copilots because they can augment our users, open up the platforms and ecosystems they need to reach, and let them and their partners co-innovate, using software like Rockwell Automation FactoryTalk

® Design Studio
™,” explained Althoff.

“No one joins these technical fields just to learn syntax, so it helps if they can ask their software directly for help. This unlocks a lot of user joy.”

Just Getting Started

Moret and Althoff reported that, to further support inclusive collaboration, generative AI can even support joint design reviews that include copilots in Teams meetings.

“We’ve used ladder logic for decades to understand relays, but many recent graduates don’t know it,” added Moret. “Generative AI will allow more users to understand what automation is about, and perhaps consider working with controllers and automation as their careers.”

For example, Althoff said that the large-language models (LLM) that generative AI is based on permit less-experienced users to interact with it more easily using the spoken words they’re used to.

Automation Fair 2023 Keynote Blake Moret & Judson Althoff

“Generative AI is really a call to action for everyone because it can change employees’ experiences and bend the curve on innovation.” Judson Althoff, chief commercial officer at Microsoft, talks industrial metaverse with Blake Moret, chairman and CEO of Rockwell Automation.

“We’re unlocking power of the prompt,” he said. “Frontline workers hold all the golden expertise about how things really get done, and deal with a lot of complexity. Now, they can pull out a mobile device, take a picture and tell the software it’s not working. The software will then access a recursive knowledge base and provide recommendations and solutions in the language that workers know best.”

“Generative AI is really a call to action for everyone because it can change employees’ experiences and bend the curve on innovation,” Althoff concluded.

“We took the suggestion of our own staffers and used AI to help answer complex questions to further build its expertise. We even took $100 million off our support organization’s expenses, while increasing customer satisfaction. This means anyone can ask generative AI how to help their employees, and they’ll get an answer.”

 

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The Journal From Rockwell Automation and Our PartnerNetwork™ is published by Endeavor Business Media.

Topics: The Journal FactoryTalk DesignSuite
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