From the steam engine to artificial intelligence, every industrial revolution centers on collaboration between tools and their creators. The next stage of industrial evolution will see people work alongside smart machines to support sustainable prosperity, this has been called Industry 5.0. Think of it as the era of semi-automation.
In the face of continued supply chain challenges, energy limits, and shifting consumer demands, this blend of human ingenuity and trusted machine-generated insights could bring about safer workplaces, lower production costs, and more sustainable operating models.
Semi-automation will rely heavily on currently available technologies such as the industrial internet of things (IIoT), AI, digital twins, and customized large language models (LLMs), alongside industrial robotics.
With these technologies, massive quantities of raw information can be analyzed, contextualized, and visualized to create an end-to-end view of the business value chain, providing actionable insights. Together with human judgement, these insights become industrial intelligence.
In effect, human workers are now partnering with smart machines to do their jobs better, respond to opportunities faster, and achieve more with less. This is the foundation of semi-automation.
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The big four amplifying human ingenuity in industry
How do advanced technologies amplify human ingenuity? Let’s look at the four major digital technologies transforming industrial operations today by delivering benefits such as supply chain visibility, predictive warnings and operational recommendations.
- IIoT can be compared to an industrial central nervous system. Industrial devices such as connected sensors, valves, or switches are now equipped with the capabilities to send data to HMI and SCADA systems or the cloud. When these data streams are aggregated into a single source of truth, AI and machine learning can easily analyze and contextualize them, delivering real-time operational oversight and enhancing decision making with predictive alerts. For example, teams at Duke Energy used insights from 30,000 sensors to develop 10,000 models to identify plant failures before they occurred. With 385 predictive finds over three years, it saved $45 million.
- Digital twins, defined as virtual replicas of physical entities or processes, enhances this data ecosystem by enabling industries to simulate, optimize, and predict outcomes without costly real-world errors. The latest version of the technology, called ‘one intelligent twin,’ unifies the value chain, from conceptual design and engineering through to project maturity into operations and optimization for operational visibility. Digital twin technology helps French multinational TotalEnergies track greenhouse gas emissions in real time, and by addressing issues rapidly, engineers have helped save €1.5 million ($1.57 million U.S.) and 64 days of downtime in a year.
- We’re familiar with LLMs, the AI systems reshaping business workflows by processing and interpreting vast amounts of data. Customized LLMs, unlike their generic counterparts, are fine-tuned for specific industrial enterprises, transforming proprietary data into actionable insights, sort of a shortcut to success. At the moment, an industrial AI assistant can integrate operational data with an LLM to answer focused natural-language queries about system performance, like tracking offline turbines or comparing wind farm output.
- Industrial robotics represent a fourth technology wave slowly breaking onto shop floors. Whether drones, collaborative robots, or articulated arms, these machines are not here to replace workers but to augment their abilities, taking on repetitive or hazardous tasks while driving productivity gains. In Italy, for example, the food packaging consultant and producer Livetech achieved up to 40% savings and 50% faster changeover time using robotic applications.
As the examples show, each of these technologies drives industrial value on its own.
An integrated tech stack leads to semi-automation
Over the coming years, AVEVA expects to start seeing digital technologies stacked atop one another to accelerate innovation, optimize operations, and slash costs and carbon emissions.
For examples, robots such as Boston Dynamics’ Spot quadruped can maneuver around a facility with a payload of sensors for recording information from warehouses or shop floors as they carry out other tasks. Such mobile robots can enable an evergreen digital twin as they operate in all weather and at all times of the day.
A customized LLM technology layer can use that high-quality live dataset to recommend unique business-specific growth, operations approaches, and emissions strategies, providing enterprises with a “secret sauce” that provides a competitive advantage.
Similarly, when an early warning goes off, drones can be used as “first responders” to gather critical information even in remote areas, thus saving costs and improving worker safety.
The promise of semi-automation lies in how current and future systems interconnect. When put to work together, they form a feedback loop where every component enhances the other—in a setting inspired by the industrial metaverse.
Such an integration could eventually create the equivalent of an in-house consultant that understands every aspect of your business and can offer strategic guidance on future actions—complete with pros and cons.
Humans will still lead the future of industrial work
We’re several years – possibly decades – away from the industrial equivalent of HAL 9000, but is it any wonder that an overwhelming majority (71%) of 500 senior executives AVEVA surveyed agreed that industrial intelligence technologies are required now more than ever to remain competitive?
In parallel, as developments such as responsible AI become the foundational driving principles behind our evolving new tech toolkit, we will see intelligent systems consistently defer to humans on big-picture questions.
As begin to we benefit from semi-automation, emerging technologies will assist with complex tasks—from analytics to optimization—but they should always work for humans. In common with the original steam-powered industrial revolution, humans will always make the final decision.
About the author
Simon Bennett is director of innovation and incubation at AVEVA. For the past 12 years, he has held a number of leadership roles at the company in product management, marketing, strategy, sales excellence, and enablement.
Bennett plays a pivotal in AVEVA’s innovation and development initiatives. Today, he is responsible for leading its global technology research program with some of the world’s leading universities to help curate the future of industry and foster the next generation of technology innovators.
