Controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) is gaining traction as a response to climate pressures and supply chain fragility, offering localized, resource-efficient food production. While promising, CEA’s growth depends on addressing energy intensity, ensuring modular and context-specific designs, and applying industrial tools like automation, digital twins, and interoperable standards. Policy incentives, market adoption, and ecosystem partnerships will shape whether CEA moves from pilot projects to resilient food infrastructure.

More than two-thirds of all digital transformational projects fail. Forrester's take aligns with Siemens’ observations of its customers — especially small- and midsize businesses (SMBs) — as they struggled with their digital transformation projects. Siemens wanted to support its customers with rightsized offerings, easy access to the latest technologies, and help finding skilled partners for implementation. This case study highlights how Siemens designed and established its digital business platform, Siemens Xcelerator, to evolve from a product-centric to a customer-centric company, while achieving a 14% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2020 to 2025.

Futurists Scott Smith and Susan Cox-Smith of Changeist join the Siemens Xcelerator Community Thought Leadership Series to discuss how organizations can embed foresight into everyday culture. They explore the risks of treating futures thinking as a one-off exercise, the realities of “hyperchange,” and practical ways communities can amplify foresight practices. With lessons from global brands, NGOs, and their book Future Cultures, the Smiths show how leaders can build resilience and keep their organizations’ “headlights on” in uncertain times.

This short community survey is part of a community-based research project for Siemens Xcelerator Community that explores how generative AI is being used today, what opportunities it creates, and what concerns remain. By taking part in our survey, you’ll contribute to an industry-wide perspective and gain exclusive insights into how peers are approaching this powerful technology.

A Siemens and WIRED Consulting co-authored article on the promise of AI agents enabling a raft of new applications, and the challenges that need to be solved first.

Global demand for batteries is soaring, driven by mobility, grid storage, and industrial applications. Meeting this demand sustainably requires rethinking the entire value chain, from sourcing critical minerals to end-of-life recovery. Circularity, digital traceability, and cross-industry collaboration are reshaping the sector, and waste should be treated as a design flaw, not an inevitability. Circular systems can boost resilience and profitability and are becoming the organizing principle of the battery industry’s future.

Mathias Oppelt and Vanessa Ramster recount how their individual backgrounds and passions ultimately resulted in the concept of an innovation club, which evolved into the Siemens Xcelerator Community.

Smart manufacturing is entering a new phase, where success requires bringing together digital innovation, operational resilience, and human-centered thinking. Manufacturers are investing in AI platforms and agents, digital twins, and cloud-connected systems to optimize production, improve quality, and respond to shifting supply chain dynamics in real time. At the same time, they’re rethinking how factories are designed, how work gets done, and how people and machines interact. This transformation isn’t just about efficiency. It’s also about building systems that are adaptable, sustainable, and built for long-term growth. As the pace of change accelerates, the companies that thrive will be those that align technology, talent, and strategy into a unified vision for the future of industry.