Last year I attended the Future of Engineering Summit. What stood out was hearing simulation, design software and consulting perspectives in the same session, each addressing the same shift in engineering from a different angle. The talks were short and focused, and the panel at the end put those different views side by side. For an online event, it was refreshingly direct.
The third edition takes place on Tuesday 3 November, and I am looking forward to it even more than last year’s, because the theme reflects where our industry is right now.
From possibility to practice
Last year’s discussion was largely about direction: where engineering is heading, which technologies will shape it, and what engineers should prepare for. This year the summit is titled From Pilot to Rollout, and the focus has moved to what agentic AI is already delivering inside engineering organizations.
That shift says a lot about how quickly the technology is maturing. A year ago, most teams were exploring what agents could do. Today, a growing number have moved beyond the first experiments and are using agentic AI in real product development work. The interesting questions are now practical ones: how they scaled it, what they had to change along the way, and how they measure the value it creates.
Why simulation engineers should care
For those of us in simulation, this progression will feel familiar. Every new method goes through the same stages. First you prove it works on a controlled case. Then you learn how it behaves across different users, data and edge cases. Finally it becomes part of how the team works every day, with clear practices around it.
Agentic AI follows the same path. The pilot shows what is possible. The rollout is where the real gains appear: hours returned to engineers, faster design iterations, and more time spent on the decisions that need engineering judgment. It is also where teams define how the engineer and the agent work together, who reviews what, and how the workflow evolves.
That is exactly what this edition focuses on, with use cases that have moved past the pilot stage and the results teams are seeing.
A program with different points of view
What I value about this summit is that the speakers come from very different positions in the engineering ecosystem:
Volkswagen Group. Clemens Frenzel, Head of Digital Solutions Mechanical Engineering, will talk about AI in mechanical engineering, from the target picture to the value chain in a vehicle project. This is the view from inside a large OEM, where scale and integration are the real challenges.
Siemens Digital Industries Software. Alexandre Poisson, Senior Product Manager for Data and AI in PLM and ALM, will share practical insights and customer use cases on scaling AI in PLM.
MecAgent. Owein Dourneau, CEO and co-founder, will present on AI for CAD and what it means for mechanical engineering. This is the startup perspective.
Capgemini. Praveen Cherian, Executive Vice President, will speak about finding the hidden factory in engineering: the capacity that is lost in processes rather than in tools.
Synera. Ubaldo Rodriguez and Andrew Sartorelli will open with the keynote.
Panel. Ubaldo Rodriguez, Praveen Cherian and independent consultant Michael Finocchiaro, who also spoke last year, will discuss where agentic engineering goes after the pilot era.
The session is moderated by Rachael Pasini, Editor-in-Chief of Design World.
An OEM, a PLM provider, a startup, a consultancy, an independent analyst and a trade editor each see this shift from a different position. That is what makes the format so useful. When the same topic is approached from several angles, you get a much more complete picture than any single perspective could give you.
How to get the most out of it
If you attend, here are a few questions worth keeping in mind as you listen, especially if you are thinking about how agentic AI could apply in your own team:
What made the rollout work? Look for the conditions behind each success: the data, the processes and the people that made scaling possible.
How are teams measuring value? Notice which metrics organizations use to track impact. They are a useful starting point for building your own case internally.
How did the engineer’s role evolve? Listen for how responsibilities shifted once agents took on part of the work, and where engineering judgment became even more important.
What would they do differently? Lessons learned along the way are often the most useful part of any talk, because they save you time when you start.
What applies to your context? A use case from a large automotive program may need adapting for a smaller team or a different product. Focus on the principles you can take with you.
This is the same mindset we bring to any new method in simulation: understand how it works, learn from those who have applied it, and adapt it carefully to your own work.
Practical details
The Future of Engineering Summit takes place online on Tuesday 3 November 2026, from 6:00 PM to 8:15 PM CET (12:00 PM ET / 9:00 AM PT). Registration is free.
Register for the Future of Engineering Summit
If you attend, I would be interested to hear which session you found most useful, and which ideas you would like to try in your own work. Reply to this email or leave a comment below.