Automation News is to host a webinar examining whether industrial artificial intelligence can help Europe remain competitive as manufacturers face rising costs, labour shortages and growing competition from Asia and North America.
The webinar, Can Industrial AI Make Europe More Competitive? will take place on Tuesday 29 September 2026 at 2pm UK time.
The event will bring together senior figures from the industrial automation sector to discuss how AI is being applied in manufacturing, where companies are already seeing measurable benefits, and what needs to happen for adoption to accelerate across European industry.
The panel will be hosted by Lucy Barnard, Editor of Automation News, and will feature Cecile Vercellino, SVP Industrial Automation at Schneider Electric; John Mackey, Head of Automation Sales at WAGO UK & Ireland; Dan Smalley, Head of Technology & Digitalisation at Siemens Xcelerator UK&I; and Sanjit Shewale, Global VP and Division Head of Digital, Process Industries at ABB.
The discussion comes as European manufacturers face a combination of high energy and production costs, shortages of skilled workers and intensifying competition from overseas.
While Europe has fallen behind the US and China in some areas of AI development, its established industrial base could provide an opportunity to apply the technology where the region already has considerable expertise.
Manufacturers have decades of production data and experience that could be used to improve industrial processes, from predictive maintenance and machine vision to increasingly autonomous production systems.
The panel will examine whether that industrial advantage can translate into greater productivity and competitiveness, and whether Europe can deploy AI quickly enough to maintain its position as a global manufacturing centre.
It will also look at the practical barriers to adoption, including investment costs, skills shortages, legacy equipment, data and the difficulty of scaling digital technologies across complex manufacturing operations.
To register for the event click here.
