Schneider Electric unveils next generation agentic manufacturing capabilities

Schneider Electric provides the industrial execution backbone for the collaboration through EcoStruxure Automation Expert, its open, softwaredefined automation platform that runs consistently across onpremises, edge, and hybrid environments. Microsoft extends this foundation with Azure cloud and AI services that orchestrate, analyse, and optimise industrial processes. The result is a unified approach to agentic manufacturing, open automation, and endtoend sustainability.

Manufacturers today face increasing product variability, supply chain instability, and mounting pressure to modernise safely. Schneider Electric addresses these challenges by connecting engineering intent with realtime operational execution. Their combined platform enables teams to standardise reusable logic, validate automation through simulation, maintain traceability throughout the lifecycle, and scale interoperable operations across diverse sites and hardware.

Schneider Electric is working with Microsoft to develop the next generation of agentic, softwaredefined manufacturing, an integrated workflow spanning design, engineering, build, commissioning, and operations. At the core is EcoStruxure Automation Expert, which allows manufacturers to author, simulate, validate and deploy automation logic once and run it anywhere without retooling. Schneider Electric's deep expertise in safety, compliance, and industrial integration ensures reliability in highly regulated environments.

"From agentic design to software defined operations, Microsoft and Schneider Electric demonstrate a single, interoperable workflow that validates, simulates, and deploys automation logic consistently across cloud and edge", said Gwenaelle Huet, EVP Industrial Automation at Schneider Electric.

Where traditional automation programs require separate tools and handoffs at each phase - engineering design, simulation, commissioning and operations, the joint platform collapses these into a single traceable workflow. Specialised AI agents, coordinated by an orchestrator, automate routine design decisions and validate logic before deployment, reducing design-to-build lead times and improving first-pass yield. Schneider Electric's industrial copilot for manufacturers, powered by Azure AI, is already delivering results in the field: engineering teams report up to 50%-time savings on control configuration and documentation tasks, with production line changes that previously required weeks now completed in hours.

In one live autonomous green hydrogen deployment with H2E Power, an Indian green hydrogen pioneer, the platform has maintained more than 6,000 hours of stable autonomous operation in one of the most demanding industrial environments - high-temperature solid oxide electrolysis for green hydrogen production - cutting the levelised cost of hydrogen by up to 10%, equivalent to around 500,000 per year for a typical 10 MW plant.

"With agentic design, we're closing the loop from engineering intent to operational reality, automating decisions, validating earl, and handing off reusable automation packages that Schneider Electric can simulate and deploy consistently across cloud and edge," said Dayan Rodriguez, Corporate Vice President, Manufacturing and Mobility, Microsoft.