The Rise of Next-Gen Tech in the Industrial Sector

Automation

“In terms of automation, what’s gotten us here is the continuous evolution and use of semiconductors, sensors and software, and the increased power that you continually get from iteration over iteration of this,” said Foster. Katz added, “I think there’s a lot of low-hanging fruit on the automation side, that you can sort of stage things as you go to increase your productivity.”

Digital Design and Digital Twin Technologies

“We’re definitely seeing a lot of digital design and that’s certainly allowed for a far quicker design cycle – and a lot of the simulation as well, in terms of really improving the underlying technologies,” said Segrich. Foster feels digital twinning presents a major opportunity: “That’s going to be a major player as you go forward, especially with infrastructure, reshoring and things like that. I think that market is going to grow a lot.”

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Shah highlighted the strengthening connection of AI and the automotive industry. “The car is essentially just becoming an AI supercomputer on wheels,” he said, calling out the growing appetite for computing technology, software and sensors in the auto sector. “I think there’s going to be a ton of consolidation in the sensor space.”

AI is also poised to find its way into edge devices, according to Shah. “You’re going to see more and more compute [power] going into each of these edge devices, and it’s going to have security and some level of AI. I think AI, which started more in the cloud, is going to proliferate more and more to the edge.”

Robotics

Katz highlighted types of technology that appeal to her team, including robotics and factory automation. “[This] isn’t a new concept, but I think what we’re seeing more recently is enhancements around those robotics.” Foster echoed that sentiment: “You're starting to see an evolution of the robot coming from very specific applications… picking, sorting or in the auto industry, painting and welding and things like that. And you're going to move that to more broad applications across the factory floor.” Drivers of this trend will include a move to smaller robots or cobots, increased functionality and machine vision.