As industries worldwide confront a new era defined by automation, decarbonisation, and digital transformation, Siemens is positioning itself at the forefront of the industrial AI revolution. And at the centre of this strategy sits Siemens India, operating in one of the company’s fastest-growing markets and a rising global powerhouse for AI-driven innovation.
At the helm of this technological pivot is Peter Koerte, member, managing board, chief technology officer & chief, strategy, Siemens AG, who has emerged as one of the most influential voices redefining the future of industrial technology. For Koerte, the convergence of AI, engineering and automation is not merely an upgrade; it is the foundation of a ‘software-defined industrial world’.
During a recent strategic briefing on the future of the ‘Industrial Metaverse’ and AI at the Siemens Transform 2026 in Mumbai, Koerte framed AI as the most transformative productivity lever in decades. The company sees industrial AI and not the consumer-facing generative tools that dominate headlines as the engine that will unlock massive improvements in energy efficiency, material optimisation and system reliability.
“AI is the biggest lever for productivity we have seen in decades,” says Koerte. “By combining the real and digital world, we enable customers to achieve more with less energy, material, and time”.
Siemens has become the architect of connected, intelligent ecosystems capable of driving autonomous decision-making across factories, grids and transport networks. Industrial AI, he argues, is the key to solving the world’s most complex challenges – whether it’s modernising power infrastructure or creating resilient supply chains – and describes India as an emerging global launch pad for AIpowered industrial applications.
Siemens already employs 10,000 software and AI specialists in Bengaluru and Pune, embedded within a broader workforce of 38,000 employees and 25 factories across the country. The company expects India to increasingly influence global innovation pipelines, especially as AI shifts the nature of engineering work.
India’s aggressive adoption of AI strengthens this positioning. With 87 per cent of Indian enterprises already using AI solutions, the country is accelerating faster than many developed markets. This creates the perfect proving ground for industrialgrade AI applications that Siemens can scale globally.
Workforce transformation
As AI becomes deeply integrated across Siemens’ operations, the company is undergoing one of the most profound workforce transformations in its history. The traditional large-scale software engineering teams are giving way to smaller, more specialised groups with strong domain expertise, enhanced by AI-assisted coding and copilots.
Koerte believes that AI will reduce the need for expansive coding teams and, instead, emphasises architects, data scientists, ML engineers and UX designers capable of creating differentiated value through domain-rich AI systems. This shift elevates India’s role. No longer a ‘coding factory’,
India is becoming a nucleus for product co-creation, a place where teams design, shape and test next-generation industrial AI solutions, rather than simply executing predefined requirements.
One of the biggest opportunity areas, the CTO highlights, is physical AI that operates in factories, grid stations and industrial environments, where frontline workers cannot rely on laptops or phones. Siemens is experimenting with natural and intuitive ways for workers to interact with AI on the shop floor, whether through voice interfaces, spatial systems or intelligent automation layers.
Koerte believes that India is poised to stand alongside the US and China as one of the top three AI nations globally. For Siemens, India’s strengths in software and engineering provide an unparalleled foundation for building industrial AI applications with global relevance, driven by India’s policy environment and data centre incentives, India AI Mission, semiconductor investments and infrastructure modernisation efforts. As a result, Siemens expects Indiabuilt AI applications to increasingly power global factories, grids and mobility networks.
As Siemens continues its global transformation, industrial AI becomes the unifying thread across its businesses from smart infrastructure to mobility to digital industries. With leadership that believes in the convergence of the real and digital worlds, and a country like India accelerating this shift at scale, Siemens is redefining what the next century of industry will look like. The mission is clear: build a future where industry is intelligent, sustainable, software-defined and place India at the heart of this global transformation.