Navigating the Industrial AI Fjord: Bridging Autonomy, AI-Ready Data Products and Digital Twins in Manufacturing
Industrial AI is often compared to a “Fjord” – a deep, complex landscape requiring precise navigation routes between high-level virtual models and the gritty reality of the shop floor. This workshop brings together leading experts from major EU initiatives (including SM4RTENANCE, REED, InterQ, DAT4.Zero, PSS Pass) to dissect the friction points in the edge-to-cloud continuum space, where Autonomous Systems, Data Spaces, and Digital Twins converge.
To bridge this gap, the session introduces AI-Ready Data Products as a strategic enabler to bridge physical with cloud AI systems. We explore how transforming raw industrial data – from machines, sensors, and quality systems – into structured, interoperable digital assets is the only way to meet the strict reliability requirements of modern factories. By aligning semantic metadata with industry standards (such as Asset Administration Shell and Digital Product Passport), these data products provide the foundation for scalable AI adoption, MLOps pipelines, and seamless integration with AI agents.
Moreover, the workshop positions these innovations within the broader European AI ecosystem, highlighting the data-driven convergence of AI Factories, Testing and Experimentation Facilities (TEFs) and European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIHs) envisaged by the Data Labs of the recent EU Data Union Strategy. Finally, through practical industry use cases, we will demonstrate how this unified framework drives productivity, efficiency, competitiveness and environmental impact of our EU industries.
Expected workshop outputs include:
· A prioritized list of industrial data products by process area.
· A framework of measurable KPIs for evaluating AI impact in manufacturing.
· Strategic input for the BDVA Smart Manufacturing Industry working group to guide future large-scale testing and experimentation.
- Introduction (Davide Dalle Carbonare, An Lam)
- Setting the scene (Sergio Gusmeroli)
- Projects presentations:
- AI-based Learning Feedback Loop and Advanced Data Sharing for Sustainable Manufacturing as a Service – Insights from the European project REED and the Norwegian project BÆREL – (Phu Nguyen, Simeon Tverdal)
- Towards Trustworthy Cognitive Manufacturing: AI, Data Spaces and Human-Centric Industrial Intelligence (Insights from the COGNIMAN Project) – (Wissam Mallouli)
- Guidelines and use cases of AI-ready Data Products in the machine tools industry: the SM4RTENANCE Digital Europe deployment action of Data Spaces in Manufacturing – (Sergio Gusmeroli, Andrea Villa)
- Sustainability and Servitization: Empowering the manufacturing value chains through augmented Digital Product Passports – (PSS-Pass / Angelo Marguglio, Davide Dalle Carbonare)
- Panel Discussion (moderated by Sergio Gusmeroli)
Slides
