Rockwell Automation’s partnership with Microsoft is a major milestone in the use of artificial intelligence in industrial automation. The partnership will bring the following advantages to industrial automation system manufacturers:

Enhance productivity: generative AI can automatically generate code, design drawings, etc., thus helping engineers improve work efficiency.
Shorten time-to-market: Generative AI can help engineers quickly verify design solutions, thus shortening time-to-market.
Enhance workforce: generative AI can reduce the need for skilled labor, thus helping companies improve workforce efficiency.
Specifically, the first result of this collaboration is the integration of Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service into Rockwell Automation’s FactoryTalk® Design Studio™. This integration will enable FactoryTalk® Design Studio™ to utilize OpenAI’s generative AI technology to generate code, design drawings and more. This will help engineers get their work done faster and more efficiently, resulting in increased productivity and reduced time to market.

For example, an engineer can use FactoryTalk® Design Studio™ to describe the design requirements for an automation system, and OpenAI will generate code, design drawings, and more based on those requirements. The engineer only needs to make simple changes to the generated content to complete the design of the automation system. This will greatly save engineers’ time and effort.

The cooperation between Rockwell Automation and Microsoft will bring new changes to the field of industrial automation. With the continuous development of artificial intelligence technology, the design and development of industrial automation systems will become more efficient and convenient.