[Photo: Guillaume Vendroux, DELMIA CEO]
Generative AI is beginning to seep into the worlds of manufacturing and industrial operations, bringing with it a level of accessibility and simplicity that was previously unimaginable. Just as AI models now allow anyone to generate a realistic video clip, image, or audio sequence within seconds, the same principles are starting to apply to one of the most complex layers of industry – the creation of virtual twins. What once demanded long engineering cycles, data modeling, manual simulations, and expertise across multiple systems is now becoming faster, cheaper, and increasingly available to manufacturers of all sizes.
At the center of this shift is DELMIA, the manufacturing and operations brand of Dassault Systèmes. The company is positioning generative AI as the engine enabling a new kind of virtual twin: modular, dynamic, built quickly from existing plant layouts or physical environments, and extended over time as production evolves. “We’re entering a moment where generative AI makes the virtual twin accessible to every factory, not just the giants,” says Guillaume Vendroux (גיום וונדרו), CEO of DELMIA. “What used to require teams of specialists can now be done simply, quickly, and at a much lower cost. It’s a real democratization of industrial innovation.”
Virtual twins did not start this way. Two decades ago, they were primarily used to represent a single engineered object – an engine, a gearbox, a wing assembly. Over time, as sensors, MES platforms, and simulation engines matured, the concept evolved into something far more dynamic. Today a digital twin is no longer just a model of a product but a behavioral model of an entire system: the production line, the flow of materials, the workforce, the supply chain, and the way all these elements respond to change in real time. “We moved from modeling objects to modeling entire operations,” says Vendroux. “It’s a profound shift in mindset.”
This shift is not a matter of technological fascination but of necessity. The manufacturing world is facing severe labor shortages, rapidly rising product complexity, and a supply chain landscape riddled with disruptions. Factories of every size are being forced to re-evaluate how they plan, execute, and adapt. “The complexity and speed of manufacturing today simply don’t allow us to work the way we used to,” says Vendroux. “The variety of products, the frequency of changeovers, and the constant supply chain pressure make traditional management almost impossible. A factory without a virtual twin is basically operating blind.”
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed this fragility with unprecedented clarity. Lockdowns, logistical delays, energy price spikes, geopolitical tensions, and sudden shifts in demand turned supply chains volatile. For many factories the need to simulate scenarios, predict failures, and maintain continuity became existential. “COVID revealed the real vulnerability of global supply chains,” he explains. “Since then the ability to simulate, anticipate, and prepare has become fundamental.”
Traditionally, creating a virtual twin required gathering detailed engineering data, creating 3D models, manually connecting operational parameters, and running discrete simulations. Generative AI alters the process from the ground up. Modern systems can interpret images, videos, CAD files, or existing plant documentation and automatically build much of the required structure. “We start from an existing view of the shop floor,” Vendroux explains. “AI can recognize equipment, convert it into rich models, and begin running simulations within minutes. A few years ago that would have been science fiction.”
And the impact is anything but incremental. “We’re not talking about five percent improvement,” he says. “With generative AI we’re talking about fifty to eighty percent additional efficiency. These are magnitudes that fundamentally change a factory.”
DELMIA’s own history illustrates how the industry arrived at this point. The brand emerged in the late 1990s from Dassault Systèmes’ acquisition of Deneb Robotics, one of the early pioneers of virtual factory simulation. Initially focused on discrete manufacturing – aerospace, automotive, trucks, heavy machinery – DELMIA quickly grew to dominate these sectors. Over time it expanded into continuous manufacturing such as chemicals and metals, batch processing like cosmetics, and hybrid industries including batteries and advanced materials. Today the company serves around 2,500 customers and about 1.8 million users worldwide. Remarkably, more than one million of them are shop-floor workers. “That’s the strongest indication that these tools are not reserved for executives,” says Vendroux. “They reach the people doing the actual work.”
Labor shortages remain one of the industry’s most pressing challenges. Younger generations are less inclined to work on the shop floor, and manufacturers are struggling to maintain expertise as older workers retire. “If we don’t make the work more intelligent, there simply won’t be enough people to run our factories,” says Vendroux. “Workers today want to use their minds, not just their hands.” This is where AI-powered assistants come in. DELMIA is developing language-based companions capable of guiding operators, generating step-by-step instructions, analyzing issues, and providing safety or technical guidance through natural conversation. “An operator will be able to ask: ‘How do I carry out this specific weld?’ and receive complete instructions, safety guidelines, and a simulation within seconds.”
For small and midsize manufacturers the implications are transformative. Building a digital twin was once a privilege of giant corporations with vast engineering resources. Now DELMIA offers twin-building automation as well as Twin-as-a-Service for factories that lack the time or expertise to build one themselves. “You bring us the problem, and we bring you the twin,” Vendroux says. “We simulate, run scenarios, and give you the insights. It’s fast and accessible.”
The most significant innovation is the unification of three layers of virtual twins: the product twin, the process twin, and the supply chain twin. Only when these layers interact coherently can a factory achieve true operational stability. “We connect all of it,” he explains. “When the product, the production system, and the supply chain all speak the same language, the factory can finally breathe.”
Looking ahead, DELMIA envisions a future in which factories are defined largely through natural language: an engineer describes a desired line, and the system builds, validates, and optimizes it automatically. “Generative AI will allow entire production lines to be created from textual descriptions,” Vendroux says. “The role of humans will shift from model-building to decision-making. It will change everything we know about manufacturing.”
The fusion of AI, simulation, and industrial operations marks the beginning of a new era. What happened to video creation and image generation is now happening to manufacturing itself. The world of production is moving into a phase where every factory can have a virtual replica, every operator can access knowledge instantly, and every process can be optimized continuously. For DELMIA and for the manufacturers adopting these tools, the implications are enormous: more flexibility, greater resilience, and a path toward an industrial ecosystem that is finally as intelligent as the products it creates.