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An automation engineer working in a high-tech facility, viewing a digital AI robot assistant overlay on a screen alongside technical code and 3D CAD models.

How generative AI transforms automation engineering

Empower automation engineers to work faster, smarter, and more efficiently by reducing routine workload - smarter engineering starts with one prompt.

Generative AI has already transformed everyday office work. Early on, we recognized that generative AI could bring similar benefits to industry, so we leveraged our deep domain expertise with the vision to integrate generative AI-powered assistants across our portfolio from design, realize, optimize and across industries. Eigen Engineering Agent is the next step, and pilot partners like Prism Systems are already experiencing its impact firsthand.

For manufacturing sites, designing automation is both dynamic and incredibly diverse, making the work as exciting as the environments themselves. But much of it is also monotonous and repetitive: clicking through screens, writing similar code again and again, executing routine tasks. In the rush to get things done, there's often little room for real problem-solving. At first, AI-based tools were out of reach for automation engineers entirely.

“Tools like ChatGPT showed us how powerful AI can be, and engineers quickly recognized their potential,” says John Elias, President at Prism Systems, one of our pilot partners. “The challenge has been bringing that capability into real industrial workflows. Siemens’ latest tools help close that gap, allowing us to apply AI in a way that truly supports engineering and automation.”

Eigen Engineering Agent: Less routine, more efficiency

Eigen Engineering Agent is a generative AI-powered assistant designed expressly for the Totally Integrated Automation (TIA) Portal. Natural language interactions make prompting easy, users can upload documents, and a vast prompt library is available. All actions are executed directly within TIA Portal, a key differentiator from most AI-based solutions on the market.

Engineers at Prism Systems, whose automation solutions are integrated into wide-reaching facilities around the world including warehouses, automotive plants, food and beverage factories, and papermaking facilities, have been exploring the Eigen Engineering Agent to generate Structured Control Language (SCL) code for PLCs, which monitor inputs, execute programmed logic, and control machines or processes in real time.

From the very first step of a new project, the goal was to automatically generate reusable logic blocks through simple prompting – and in doing so, significantly reduce overall development time. This proved successful: from an initial prompt through even easy to implement modifications, a complete and fully documented function block was produced and added to the PLC in the TIA Portal project faster than would have been possible manually.

"This helps system integrators turn the complexity of working across many machines, customers, and standards into real engineering speed. It allows them to deliver high quality projects faster while staying flexible across a wide range of products and industries," notes Kirsten Quasey, Architecture & Portfolio Sales Manager, at Siemens.

And this is only one of the capabilities that accelerate the engineering process: hardware configuration or the generation of JavaScript code for Human‑Machine Interfaces (HMI) are likewise simplified through generative AI powered automation, while also clear answers to TIA Portal topics are just a click – or a prompt – away.

kirsten-quasey
ron-knight

"Generative AI will be increasingly used to auto-generate common control blocks and greatly reduce engineering time. Even so, developers will remain essential because their expertise is required for writing effective prompts and ensuring overall process design and functionality." – Ron Knight, Vice President of Engineering, Prism Systems

The benefits are clear: Eigen Engineering Agent maximizes productivity by reducing repetitive tasks, enables higher-quality output through auto-generated logic and validation, and gives engineers the time to focus on the problem-solving and high-value work that drives the best results for their customers.

A strategic edge in a competitive market

Beyond meeting day-to-day engineering challenges, generative AI powered automation helps company leadership address broader industry trends. With many companies facing economic pressure and leaner teams, the ability to accelerate onboarding is growing in importance. Employees are also seeking work that feels more meaningful and engaging, and less routine. We aim to address both needs with our solutions, helping companies keep pace with rising customer expectations for faster results and shorter innovation cycles.

Unlike generic AI tools, our AI solutions like Eigen Engineering Agent are purpose built for real industrial environments. We understand the challenge to implement and scale AI with measurable impact, because industrial operations demand reliability, accessibility, and scalability that common solutions can’t provide. Eigen Engineering Agent delivers on these principles of Industrial AI while keeping data and domain knowledge under the user’s control.

A workflow diagram titled 'Intelligent SCL code generation for PLCs.' It illustrates an engineer prompting a robot-themed AI Copilot to generate SCL code, which the user then reviews and imports directly into a TIA Portal project.

Successful pilots at companies like Prism Systems have proven the concept. Eigen Engineering Agent is redefining how automation is engineered, leading to faster, higher-quality results and freeing engineers to focus on the high-value tasks that drive innovation.

March 2026