By Cristina Giner
Published on
Thanks to generative processes and virtual companions, the French multinational company Dassault Systèmes is pushing the boundaries of industrial innovation with the launch of AI-driven virtual companions designed to revolutionise the way industry customers approach design and manufacturing engineering.
Dominic, Leo, and Marie are some of the names of the virtual companions that the Paris-based software giant has developed.
Marie can answer scientific questions. Leo is built to reply to any engineering questions, and Dominic, displayed at the screens of the Dassault Systèmes booth at the Mobile World Congress, can answer any questions regarding the event.
“I’m very excited about our new virtual companion because it’s going to give superpowers to the people working at my customer premises, and they’re going to be able to solve new challenges quicker,” said Florence Verzelen, executive vice president at Dassault Systèmes.
“We can really feel what the future of innovation looks like here in Mobile World Congress,” she told Euronews Next.
Connecting the virtual and real worlds
The science-based and technology-powered company provides virtual twins to create innovative new products and services. The company’s objective is to connect the virtual and real worlds through virtual twins. But what does that mean?
“It means that if you are a manufacturing company, like a car industry, for example, you can test your vehicle with your design, your engineering, your manufacturing plant in the virtual world in order to create the best possible design”, explained Verzelen. The manufacturer can ensure that the vehicle is as light as possible to reduce the CO₂ emissions and produce the one that works the best.
The goal is that any company can work on the design of a product in the virtual world while it is producing it. “Thanks to the manufacturing plan in the virtual world you can optimise everything also in real life for the manufacturing process and therefore be quicker for production and more sustainable,” she said.
How to engage companies to power virtual twins with Gen AI?
“We are engaging with our customers to power their virtual twin with Gen AI, either with virtual companions that are going to help the teams of my customers be more efficient, give them superpowers, or by working on ‘generative processes’, to be able to adapt more quickly to changes in regulation, do quicker research and development, create new materials more quickly, or any other challenges that are now helped by Gen AI,” she said.
However, are the industry customers aware of this revolution? Will they react quickly enough to get the revolutionary technology? This is actually one of Verzelen’s concerns.
“I’m always worried that some companies might take a bit too much time to enter, to test this revolution, and they might lag behind,” she said.
By linking the virtual and real worlds, they create an exchange of data and insights—fueling real-world progress and innovation. The 3D models and virtual twins potentially accelerate efficiency, sustainability, and breakthrough innovation.