Why You Should Step Inside the Siemens eXplore Tour and See Industrial AI Work | SPONSORED
Shown publicly for the first time at CES, the eXplore Tour is a mobile industrial environment built to answer a question most leaders ask before approving change: “Can I see this work before it touches my operation?”
IIoT World spoke with Chris Stevens, President, US Automation at Siemens Digital Industries, about what the experience is designed to reveal and why seeing matters more than explanation.
It Shows What Slides Never Can
Most industrial conversations still happen in conference rooms. Slides explain how digital and physical systems should work together. Whiteboards outline architectures and workflows. Inside the eXplore Tour, that abstraction disappears. You see software and hardware operating together. Simulations are not disconnected visuals. They are tied directly to real equipment. When conditions change, both the physical system and the digital model respond.
You Watch Failure Before It Reaches Production
One of the most important things you see in the truck is not success. It is failure. A robotic pick-and-place system runs with different shapes, speeds, and conditions. A fault occurs. You see it on the physical robot. You see it appear at the same time in the digital twin. Alerts trigger. The system suggests corrective actions. Simulations validate those changes before anything is applied physically.
This matters because industrial investments are not just expensive. They are disruptive when they go wrong. Leaders want to understand what breaks, how fast it is detected, and how decisions are tested before production is affected. That entire sequence is visible.
It Speaks to Engineers and Policy Makers the Same Way
The Siemens eXplore Tour is designed for manufacturers, industrial professionals, academic institutions, and government organizations to experience Siemens’ industrial automation, AI, and digital transformation technologies firsthand, helping them future-proof production, drive efficiency, and adopt new innovations. Those audiences differ in responsibility, but not in expectation.
Seeing a system detect issues, explain them, and support corrective decisions answers questions that documentation never can.
The Most Important Moment Is About People
One of the moments that gets attention inside the eXplore Tour focuses on operators. A new operator arrives on her first day. She does not have years of experience. The system identifies a drop in productivity compared to the previous day. It suggests parameter changes and shows a simulation validating the recommendation. She decides whether to act. The system does not replace her. It supports her judgment. This matters because operator training timelines are shrinking. Skills that once stayed relevant for years now require constant updating. The experience shows how knowledge can be delivered immediately while keeping accountability with people.
What You Should Discover for Yourself
The purpose of the eXplore Tour is not to convince you. It is to let you evaluate. You see how systems behave before execution. You see how risk is surfaced. You see how decisions are tested virtually before affecting production. And you see how people remain central to the process.
If you are responsible for approving technology that affects operations, workforce, or public trust, this is not something to read about later. It is something to step inside and experience.
See my experience at CES in the eXplore Truck.
About the author
Lucian Fogoros is the Co-founder of IIoT World.