Engineering organizations are moving quickly from generative AI assistants that suggest code to agentic AI systems that can plan and carry out multistep engineering tasks under human supervision. The productivity upside is real, but engineering is not general-purpose software development: Results must be grounded in physics, verifiable, and safe enough for deployment in products people depend on.
In this keynote presentation, CIMdata Principal Analyst Diego Tamburini examines what makes engineering AI different and why trust in these systems must be earned through workflows, evidence, and traceability rather than assumed in the agent itself. Drawing on CIMdata research into AI adoption across industrial organizations, Diego maps the transition from AI assistants to engineering agents, the governance and assurance questions that decide enterprise adoption, and the enduring reality that an engineer remains responsible for every result that ships, no matter how it was produced.
The keynote closes with CIMdata’s independent view: The next phase of engineering transformation will be driven not by AI alone, but by the convergence of AI, simulation, engineering knowledge, and digital engineering practices. Leave with a practical framework for evaluating agentic AI in your own workflows and for separating durable value from hype.
Diego Tamburini, Executive Consultant – AI Practice Director
CIMdata
Diego Tamburini (he/him) is an executive consultant and AI practice director at CIMdata, a PLM research and consulting firm. He founded the firm’s AI in PLM practice and conceived and led CIMdata’s first global study of AI adoption across the product lifecycle. His focus is on helping industrial companies turn AI in PLM from hype into practical, measurable value. He previously led manufacturing and AI product strategy as a director at Microsoft, served as Autodesk’s senior design and manufacturing industry strategist, and worked as a lead PLM architect at Siemens Digital Industries Software, helping Boeing and Goodrich Aerostructures implement PLM solutions. He holds a Ph.D. and an M.S. in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech and a B.S. in mechanical engineering.