ABB: Digital & AI – Accelerating Industry
September 23, 2025
ABB: Helping Industries Outrun with Process Automation
By: Rajesh Ramachandran, Chief Digital Officer, ABB Process Automation
ABB has been part of digital industrial innovation ever since the first computerized control systems were introduced back in the 1950s. Today, their solutions enhance efficiency, safety, quality, and reliability of industrial operations, helping customers unlock data-driven insights to make smarter decisions.
Of all digital innovations, AI holds perhaps the most potential to create new value through contextualization of industrial data. It is truly transformative, particularly with the rapid advancements in Generative AI (GenAI) seen in recent years.
The power of digital and AI makes its adoption a strategic priority for industry. But this adoption must work alongside customers’ existing infrastructure and minimize the risk of disruption.
At ABB, their deep industry knowledge is combined with innovation expertise to deliver practical, scalable solutions such as ABB Genix Industrial IoT and AI Suite. Their digital portfolio empowers ABB’s customers to get more from their existing infrastructure, while accelerating innovation.
It’s an exciting time: with digital and AI, they are just getting started. Read on to discover how ABB is helping their customers to turn potential into performance.
Unlocking the Power Generative AI for Industry
Rapid progress in GenAI is creating new opportunities for industry and they are working on realizing this potential through ABB Ability Genix Copilot – a GenAI solution for industrial applications.
Customizing large language models such as GPT-4 for industrial use cases, ABB is helping customers contextualize their data: surfacing richer, actionable insights that create significant new value. These insights are far faster and more accessible, with GenAI natural language interfaces reducing the need for specialist data analysis expertise and processing time.
Of course, Genix Copilot is just one part of the story.
Over the past two years, ABB has embedded GenAI across the Genix platform, which now supports more than 50 industrial AI applications. These include predictive maintenance, emissions monitoring, production scheduling, and more: each designed to deliver real-world impact.
They have also introduced modular offerings, empowering customers to adopt GenAI at their own pace, and supporting a range of deployment strategies, from targeted integration through to full Software as a Service (SaaS).
The power of GenAI runs from the shop floor to the top floor – it has the potential to transform holistic business planning and strategy. ABB is already helping customers realize this potential, with integration and analysis of financial, ERP, or HR data offering even richer insights to guide decision making.
Most importantly, their customers are seeing the benefits: reduced time-to-fix, less downtime, enhanced production efficiency, and much more.
This is just the beginning: as AI develops, its capabilities will unlock exponentially greater benefits. At ABB, their digital and AI expertise is focused on delivering these benefits to help their customers outrun – leaner and cleaner.
Innovating for More Efficient Shipping
Accelerating digital in maritime, ABB recently announced the establishment of a new joint venture with Wallenius Marine to expand collaboration on the OVERSEA project.
First launched in 2022, OVERSEA is a combined digital solution and ‘fleet-support-center-as-a-service’ offering, designed to help ship owners and operators enhance the efficiency and sustainability of their operations. Bringing together ABB’s ship technology expertise with Wallenius Marine’s extensive fleet management knowledge, the platform leverages the ABB Genix Industrial IoT and AI Suite to enable measurable performance improvements.
OVERSEA collects and analyzes on-board data from vessels worldwide, with shore-based experts providing advanced decision-making support and tailored recommendations from the Fleet Support Center in Stockholm. As a result, operators can implement operational changes to reduce fuel consumption and emissions, whilst optimizing safety and reliability.
With the new joint venture, ABB and Wallenius Marine aim to ensure their customers fully benefit from future-proof vessel performance management capabilities.
Transforming Industrial Measurement Device Maintenance
From power generation to metals processing, accurate measurement is vital for safe, efficient, and sustainable operations.
This usually involves installing, maintaining, and servicing hundreds or even thousands of measurement devices in a single plant. The devices are often in hazardous or hard-to-reach locations, with a mixed range of instrumentation – from the latest innovations to decades-old technology.
Device failure can cause costly downtime, so first-time maintenance success is crucial. Engineers may need to schedule a maintenance window, walk to the location, and wear specialized PPE before they even touch the device – making repeat visits highly inefficient.
To simplify industrial device maintenance, they have introduced My Measurement Assistant+ (MMA+). Powered by ABB Ability Genix Copilot, this web application helps technicians and engineers solve issue as they arise.
MMA+ uses generative AI to provide maintenance teams with real-time diagnostics for any device by simply scanning a QR code. Instead of manually searching through documents, MMA+ instantly surfaces relevant information, helps troubleshoot, and enables remote collaboration with experts when needed.
The results: less downtime, greater efficiency, and more first-time fixes.
Learn more about My Measurement Assistant+ HERE
Optimizing the Future of Energy
People depend on energy for everything – from transport to consumer technology. Yet as demand grows, there is also pressure to decarbonize, reduce operational costs, and maintain grid stability.
Digital innovations are a crucial enabler to meet these challenges. ABB Ability Energy Management and Optimization – OPTIMAX is engineered to turn this potential into reality.
OPTIMAX helps organizations to improve efficiency, lower emissions, and enable smarter use of renewables – without compromising operations – through real-time monitoring, predictive analytics, and AI-driven control.
In many industrial processes, immediate energy use can significantly impact production costs and profit margins. OPTIMAX supports day-ahead and intra-day forecasting, helping align energy use with production needs, market trends, and weather, helping reduce expenses, avoid peak loads and enhance grid reliability.
Energy markets are increasingly complex and fast-paced, with new models such as demand response programs a key differentiator. OPTIMAX gives energy leaders the confidence to make faster, data-driven decisions, driving success in this complex environment.
Read more about how OPTIMAX can transform energy operations HERE
Amplifying Industrial Workforce Effectiveness with Generative AI
Without skilled engineers, even the most advanced plants would grind to a halt. So, retirements and workforce turnover present a serious risk – decades of experience can vanish, unless a smarter way to capture and share it, is found.
That’s where ABB Ability Industrial Knowledge Vault comes in: a generative AI solution to safeguard critical expertise and make it instantly available to the connected workforce.
Developed with Microsoft, and powered by ABB Genix Copilot and Azure OpenAI Service, the Knowledge Vault is a platform to capture best practices, procedures, and expert insights in a centralized, secure repository, accessible through a natural language interface.
For frontline workers, it means faster access to step-by-step guidance and real-time decision support. Instead of searching through fragmented documents or relying on informal knowledge transfer, teams can generate structured workflows in seconds: boosting efficiency, reducing errors, and shortening the learning curve.
For operations and HR leaders, it’s a strategic tool to preserve institutional knowledge, streamline compliance, and ensure consistent performance across roles and shifts.
In a sector where safety, uptime, and productivity are non-negotiable, the Industrial Knowledge Vault helps companies run leaner, smarter, and more sustainably, while empowering their people to do their best work.
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