Following the rapid technological evolution in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the title of this brochure – Agentic Industrial AI – seems quite straightforward. How can we apply the concepts and tools of AI agents to industrial applications? Indeed, there is a huge potential if optimization tasks in production processes can be delegated to autonomous software components, or if operators can reliably interact with machines or entire production plants in natural language. However, industrial environments have specific requirements, not only with respect to safety, security and reliability constraints, but also regarding the methods to acquire and manage the data needed to train and operate the AI agents, as well as to systematically engineer industrial AI systems. Hence, this brochure takes a broader perspective and includes methods, tools and applications that demonstrate how to integrate agentic AI into industrial IT environments based on Industry 4.0 standards and industrial dataspaces.
It starts with an essay about the revival of agent technology in the AI era, before presenting, in a guest contribution from EDI AG, an industrial AI framework product that is evolving towards agentic AI. We then consider the data foundations enabling agentic AI, based on open standards for sensor data management, Industry 4.0 digital-twin modelling standards, industrial dataspaces and data ecosystems. We continue with the question of how to apply large language models (LLMs) to industrial engineering before presenting one of the key interfaces for agentic AI – the Model Context Protocol (MCP). The brochure concludes with an explanation of how to use agentic decision support for power system control rooms.
Agentic industrial AI is highly dynamic, multidisciplinary and diverse. It requires the targeted and careful combination of systems engineering, AI and IT skills within and across companies. We would appreciate the opportunity to get in touch and stay in contact with you in order to collaborate on dependable and trustworthy agentic industrial solutions.
Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB 