Beyond the interface, AI is revolutionizing user experience by transforming software from a passive tool into an intelligent collaborator. With IntelligentUX, industrial systems become intuitive, adaptive, and proactive—empowering users to innovate faster through natural interactions and predictive insights.
Artificial intelligence (AI) tools hit the mainstream public just two years ago, but the science has been used in industrial settings for several decades. From basic automation and control systems in the last century, applications have evolved to span AI-driven robotics on assembly lines, predictive maintenance for asset management, and most recently, in Industry 4.0 functions such as smart manufacturing and supply chain optimization.
But as different areas of AI continue to evolve, they will be more closely integrated, and barriers to entry will drop. In fact, the latest generation of industrial AI applications could drive the biggest transformation.
Over the coming months, we expect to see industrial AI become more than a backend enabler, redefining how operators interact with systems to address complex challenges. In the process, AI will improve industrial efficiency and accuracy, and democratize innovation.
The core of this new development is a new type of simplified user experience we’re calling IntelligentUX. With it, software now becomes a strategic partner, delivering proactive insights and predictive decision support for innovation on the go. Simple text prompts can generate a new dashboard, a new control system screen for SCADA applications, or an optimized engineering design.
The result? Faster, smarter business outcomes with less granular oversight.
GenAI meets Agentic AI
Tech fans will immediately spot the connection to Generative AI (GenAI), which is now helping us draft emails and create presentations. The trend is spreading to industrial settings, where it is being paired with other types of AI, such as AI agents. These autonomous systems can execute actions based on human-defined objectives.
Combining different AI technologies results in solutions such as IntelligentUX, with business benefits such as enhanced productivity, streamlined workflows and shorter time-to-value, all without heavy investment in retraining.
Think about how much time we spend learning to navigate different software, and understanding their menus, commands, shortcuts. With human-like interactions, AI will now be integrated as the ‘front end’ for industrial software systems. Instead of opening up dashboards and scrolling through various data inputs, you will simply be able to ask the system to pull up a specific process detail, generate a custom report or design an asset-specific console panel. Such results are why 71% of executives across industries say AI and AI-adjacent solutions are priority investment areas for them, according to the 2024 AVEVA Industrial Intelligence Index report.
“With AI as your digital assistant, using industrial equipment becomes easier.”
– Jim Chappell, Global Head of AI and Advanced Analytics, AVEVA
Meet your new AI assistant
IntelligentUX marks a shift from users controlling software to collaborating with it. By integrating AI into UX design, systems become more responsive, intuitive, and capable of delivering actionable intelligence, transforming how people engage with technology across industries.
Quick wins from this new development—low-hanging fruit, if you prefer—could include:
- Natural language interaction: You’ll be able to talk to your system like you talk to people. Human-like computer interaction means you can type or speak to run commands, find answers or solve problems faster.
- Context awareness: IntelligentUX software will adapt to your real-world conditions, recognizing your role and location. That means fewer mistakes, safer environments and more real-time innovation.
- Personalization: The software will quickly ‘learn’ what you need most and put the most useful data or actions right in front of you. The result? Faster workflows.
- Predictive insights: Already, industrial AI alerts operators to impending events before they occur. This process will become faster and more refined, so you stay ahead instead of reacting too late.
- Decision support: IntelligentUX becomes a helpful teammate or digital assistant, recommending what to do next and handling repetitive tasks. Instead, you can focus on big-picture problem-solving.
- Easy creation: AI-driven software will create what you need without requiring you to become an expert user.
With IntelligentUX, static interfaces become adaptive, personalized tools that meet the specific needs of different users, improving usability and product differentiation. The shift redefines innovation by emphasizing autonomy, proactive engagement, and seamless interactions.
One AI, different dashboards
IntelligentUX has the potential to unify operations, from the factory floor to the C-suite, by providing a shared language of insights and actions. In a factory, for example, different users may see personalized dashboards, where the same information is presented in the way best suited to their roles. A plant manager could see production summaries and key performance metrics, while an engineer may be served real-time data with predictive maintenance suggestions.
AI can further improve this by dynamically adapting dashboards in real-time, tailoring the information based on each user’s role, preferences, and behavioral patterns. It could also provide proactive recommendations, such as predicting equipment failures or optimizing workflows, ensuring each user has the most relevant insights to make informed decisions quickly and efficiently.
And when faults do occur, an AI assistant will explain the issue, suggest corrective actions using historical data and update the interface to highlight the most relevant controls—driving faster, smarter decisions and reducing downtime.
New pathways to Industry 5.0
As with the evolution of any new technology, new considerations and challenges will arise as IntelligentUX is rolled out. Trust and transparency will remain paramount, so human involvement in designing and calibrating these new systems will be essential.
Likewise, interfaces that explain AI-driven decisions and fail safely in critical scenarios will drive adoption.
Finally, these systems will necessarily need to be adaptable, so they extend beyond individual operators to entire workflows.
IntelligentUX will transform how humans interact with software. Thanks to significant improvements in GenAI and Agentic AI, solutions will stop living in silos and will become combined through AI into a single entity. The technology will greatly lower the barriers to entry, add massive value to industries, and take a giant leap forward toward Industry 5.0, where software is no longer just a tool but where humans and AI work together in collaboration to achieve much greater things.
