
CES 2024 Las Vegas review & outlook - part #1: Software Defined Industry
CES Las Vegas, the world's largest trade show dedicated to new technologies, marked its 2024 edition with its evocative slogan "ALL ON", an invitation to explore technological innovations that are now more integrated, accessible and interconnected than ever, paving the way for a technological era within everyone's reach. A slogan that could also have been "AI for ALL", since AI was present in virtually every product and service.
In this series of 3 articles, we share key trends from CES 2024, where we joined the Swiss delegation orchestrated by S-GE, and an exciting guided tour led by Swiss4tech, which offered us a unique insight into the latest technological advances likely to enrich the Swiss entrepreneurial landscape.

With an influx of over 135,000 visitors from all over the world, 4,300 exhibitors and over 1,000 speakers, we have selected for you 3 significant perspectives from this profusion of ideas and concepts, which you will find in the form of 3 articles. For those who wish to delve deeper, over 27,000 articles were published worldwide, testifying to the scale and impact of this major event.
- CES 2024 Las Vegas review & outlook - part #2: On-Device Generative AI - from Cloud to Local
- CES 2024 Las Vegas Review & Outlook - part #3: Technological invasion, digital technology invades all sectors
Software Defined Industry
Industrial innovation is accelerating and becoming more accessible, as Siemens CEO Roland Busch emphasized in his inspiring keynote. His vision for the future is one of significant change, focused on innovation that improves man-machine collaboration and boosts productivity.

Siemens' "Real Digital" strategy aims to intensify the fusion between the real and digital worlds through simulations, drawing on the principles of physics to create an industrial metaverse virtually indistinguishable from reality. This approach enables real-time collaboration between humans and AI to solve complex problems.
As part of this strategy, the concept of " Software-defined automation "(SDA) represents, according to Roland Busch, a significant breakthrough in industrial production. This concept moves away from the traditional approach of machine-based programmable logic controllers (PLCs), in favor of a cloud-based software approach. As part of the SDA, Siemens announced its " virtual PLCs "(vPLCs) used to control industrial assets in a similar way to conventional PLCs, but hosted on standard servers located at the edge of the network.
This approach enables remote management of automation systems, overcoming the limitations of proprietary hardware and facilitating the integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning. What's more, SDA represents a scalable, automated management model for factories, encouraging the adoption of modern, agile software development practices in the automation sector.
At the heart of this industrial transformation lies the strategic exploitation of data byartificial intelligence (AI ) and the use of "Copilot AI".Copilot AI"on a daily basis. As part of this vision, Siemens has announced several strategic partnerships aimed at strengthening its commitment to technological innovation and industrial automation.
Partnership with Microsoft
Siemens and Microsoft are deepening their collaboration by integrating generative AI into various industrial sectors. They have introduced Siemens Industrial Copilot, an AI-powered assistant designed to improve human-machine collaboration in manufacturing. In addition, the integration between Siemens' Teamcenter software for product lifecycle management and Microsoft Teams aims to simplify virtual collaboration and enable the industrial metaverse.

Partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Siemens and AWS are working together to make AI more accessible to application developers. This initiative combines the Amazon Bedrock service, which offers a selection of powerful base models via a single API, with Mendix, the low-code platform from Siemens Xcelerator. This partnership aims to integrate advances in generative AI into application development, facilitating access to these technologies for a wider range of industries.

Partnership with Sony
Siemens and Sony are collaborating to introduce a new immersive engineering solution combining the Siemens Xcelerator industrial software portfolio with Sony's spatial content creation system. The collaboration aims to facilitate the conception and exploration of design concepts in an immersive workspace, thus promoting content creation for the industrial metaverse.
Siemens operates in a multitude of sectors including aerospace, intelligent urban development, automotive, chemicals and metallurgy, energy (including renewable energies), transportation (with a focus on rail systems and electromobility) and healthcare via its Siemens Healthineers division (medical imaging and diagnostics). As a multinational corporation, Siemens is one of the world's leading companies in the field of industrial technology, with a significant presence on international markets and a broad influence in many industrial sectors.
What are the realities for Swiss SMEs and entrepreneurs?
Industry and manufacturing are at an important turning point, characterized by accelerated innovation and increasing accessibility. The adoption of technologies such as software-defined automation (SDA) and virtual PLCs shows how traditional concepts are evolving towards more flexible solutions, facilitating remote management and AI integration.

For Swiss SMEs, these developments represent significant opportunities. The digital age offers powerful tools for transforming industrial operations, making advanced technologies more accessible. Strategic partnerships in the technology sector underline the importance of collaboration and joint innovation to remain competitive.
By turning to innovative technologies and strategic partnerships, SMEs can improve their efficiency, optimize their processes and open up new horizons for growth and innovation. It's an invitation to rethink working methods and embrace the potential of digital technology for a promising industrial future.
#TechTalk & #TechDemo: concrete sources of inspiration & alternatives in French-speaking Switzerland to address international issues
AI and digitalization at the heart of industry and the industry of the future illustrated by the concept of industry 4.0 are among the themes that have been developed on several occasions by Alp ICT and these various guests during our interviews and tool demonstrations, #TechTalk & #TechDemo.
Below, on a more local scale and directly linked to the practical realities of Swiss entrepreneurs, you'll find what was revealed through these RDVs:
Continue your dive into the world of technological and digital innovation through the CES 2024 trends selected by Alp ICT :
- CES 2024 Las Vegas review & outlook - part #2: On-Device Generative AI - from Cloud to Local
- CES 2024 Las Vegas Review & Outlook - part #3: Technological invasion, digital technology invades all sectors