Siemens has announced a technical integration with Databricks and FFT Produktionssysteme to connect industrial shopfloor data directly to enterprise AI platforms. The partnership is designed to remove the requirement for traditional IoT middleware by using Siemens Industrial Edge and the FFT DataBridge.

The integration allows manufacturers to stream contextualised data from production lines to the Databricks platform. This data is used to train AI models centrally, which can then be deployed back to the edge for execution at the point of production. The approach is intended to support predictive maintenance, quality optimisation, and energy management across global factory networks.

Siemens Industrial Edge serves as the local platform for executing applications that require low latency and high security. The FFT DataBridge application facilitates the secure transfer of this data to the cloud. The companies stated this architecture simplifies industrial connectivity for approximately 30,000 potential customers.

The system is designed to support agentic AI and physical AI workflows, where human workers and AI agents collaborate on industrial operations. By bridging the gap between operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT), the partners aim to reduce the costs associated with complex data transformation layers.

“Industrial AI only delivers value when data, context and execution come together,” said Rainer Brehm, COO Automation and CTO at Siemens Digital Industries. He added that the partnership enables customers to scale AI across factories and make AI-powered production a reality.