5 days out from CES 2026 and I’m back with another theory I’ll be testing on the show floor.
This year, one of my core hypotheses centers on industrial AI, digital twins, and simulation: digital twins are shifting from visualization tools to decision engines.
For years, digital twins helped companies see systems more clearly. How equipment is running. What’s happening in facilities. A snapshot of supply chains. What I’m watching for now is whether they’re being designed to act, not just reflect.
Specifically, I’ll be looking for:
—> Simulations that run continuously, not occasionally
—> Twins that drive actions, not just model scenarios
—> AI that tests decisions virtually before they’re executed physically
If industrial AI is maturing, demos should move beyond “here’s a digital replica” to “here’s what the system would do next, and why.” Are twins robust enough to influence real-world decisions? I think they will be, I think industrial AI will help accelerate real world decisions and I’m checking for signals at CES.
If simulations remain planning tools, adoption stays narrow. If they become operational infrastructure, decision-making itself changes.
Companies like Siemens, Caterpillar Inc., and NVIDIA will be sharing advances in this space, and I’ll report back on what I see.
Curious what signals you are watching for when it comes to industrial AI at CES.
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