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Articles on “Industry”

AI and software for factories and infrastructure: what is changing and how to adopt it without extra risk.

• Mikhail Polyakov October 8, 2026

  AI in manufacturing: how to give automation more independence step by step and where to keep a person in charge

  Level: BeginnerReading time: 9 min

  Topics: AI, Industry, Automation

  

  On October 8, 2026, MIT Technology Review released a podcast, produced together with the company AVEVA, on a safe path to autonomous industrial AI. I look at what AVEVA's chief technologist says: why the risk is different in a plant, why everything starts with data, and how companies move from AI advice to automatic adjustment of equipment: according to her, such pilots have already taken place, and as a limit she suggests, for example, a narrow range. From this I put together a four-step ladder for a small manufacturer, with checks and a calculation.

  Read more: AI in manufacturing: how to give automation more independence step by step and where to keep a person in charge

• Mikhail Polyakov October 8, 2026

  Schneider Electric is buying PTC for $22.6 billion: what a digital thread is and what a small manufacturer can take from the idea

  Level: BeginnerReading time: 8 min

  Topics: Industry, Automation

  

  On October 5, 2026, Schneider Electric announced the acquisition of PTC, a developer of software for designing products and managing data about them. I look at the terms of the deal from the press release and at an independent analyst's view of where it may deliver benefits sooner and where the risk lies, explain in plain words what a digital thread is, and give three steps a small manufacturing company can take on its own.

  Read more: Schneider Electric is buying PTC for $22.6 billion: what a digital thread is and what a small manufacturer can take from the idea