The Future of PLM Webcasts

Michael Finocchiaro

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We'll talk about digital transformation and artificial intelligence and how they impact 21st century manufacturing. I have 30 years of PLM experience and wanted to share my knowledge and transmit to the next generation while also upgrading my ideas to the new Agentic AI / MCP ever-evolving paradigms!

11/08/2025

AI Across The Product Lifecycle E09 - Engineering Excellence: Dalus and Quix!

How AI is Really Being Used in Engineering Software (Spoiler: Most Companies Are Still at Data Maturity Level Zero) Michael Finocchiaro sits down with Michael Rosam (Quix - Test Data Management) and Sebastian Völkl (Dalus - Modern MBSE) to discuss what's actually happening with AI in engineering software, not just the hype. What You'll Learn: Why most engineering organizations are still using Excel files and email for test data while AI advances rapidlyHow an engineer built 10,000+ lines of production code in 7 days using Claude CLIThe reality of AI adoption in hardware engineering vs software engineering (spoiler: hardware is way behind)Why fine-tuning your own LLM probably doesn't make sense anymoreHow startups compete against Siemens, Dassault, and PTC with speed and customizationPractical strategies for handling AI hallucinations in deterministic engineering workWhat skills the next generation of engineers actually need to stay relevantKey Moments: Test data from Formula 1 teams is still being shared via CSV email attachmentsSan Francisco's AI bubble vs the reality in traditional engineering companiesWhy "vibe coding" isn't enough - you need to understand what AI generatesThe gap between software engineering AI adoption (high) and hardware engineering (almost zero)How to think about AI: Advise, Assist, Automate framework Featured Guests: Michael Rosam - Founder & CEO, Quix (UK-based test data management platform used by F1 teams)Sebastian Völkl - Co-founder, Dalus (San Francisco-based modern MBSE software) Perfect For: Systems engineers, mechanical engineers, engineering managers, PLM professionals, anyone buying or building engineering software, startup founders in industrial tech Episode Recorded: November 2025

1h 1m
10/30/2025

The Future of PLM E06: Is PLM Dead, Part 2

🎙️ I just hosted Episode 6 of the Future of PLM podcast with some of the smartest minds in the space. Rob Ferrone, Oleg Shilovitsky, Brion Carroll, Brion Carroll (II), Martin Eigner, Jos Voskuil, and Juliann Grant. We tackled the question nobody wants to answer: Is your PLM system actually solving problems or just creating new ones? Here's what came out of it: "PLM should not be a single system. PLM should be a broader set of tools and technologies that manage the product throughout its life cycle." — Brion Carroll "No one is waking up and saying, I need PLM. Everyone is waking up saying, I want to solve a problem." — Oleg Shilovitsky "We need something like an umbrella on top of all the legacy systems that breaks the silos and helps us communicate with artificial intelligence." — Martin Eigner "Companies need to take a step back and not look at technology as a solution, but look at what they're trying to accomplish from a product perspective." — Juliann Grant The reality? Half of manufacturers are planning to replace their PLM systems. Not because the technology is bad. But because the approach is broken. → PLM isn't a vendor's system anymore → It's a solution that spans your entire product lifecycle → From ideation to service and back → AI can't work without it being unified first We're working on a PLM Manifesto to define what this actually means. If you're dealing with legacy PLM systems, integration nightmares, or trying to figure out where AI fits... This conversation is for you. Want to be part of the next discussion? 💬 Comment "MANIFESTO" below and I'll keep you in the loop ♻️ Repost this so your network sees where PLM is actually headed The future of product development isn't about better systems. It's about smarter solutions. 📺 Full recording here: https://youtu.be/sjsKxKf0Q_8?si=FujONeOk8lnlqAQL #PLM #ProductLifecycleManagement #DigitalTransformation #AI #Manufacturing #BetterCallFino #TheFutureOfPLM

59 min
10/28/2025

Summary of first 8 interviews

🔥 STOP SCROLLING! The AI HYPE is OVER. Welcome to the Industrial AI REVOLUTION. 🔥 The "AI Across the Product Lifecycle" podcast cuts through the noise, bringing you unfiltered insights directly from the founders of the hottest startups transforming engineering and manufacturing. Are you worried about AI taking your job, or just tired of hearing about "Vibe Coding"? We dive deep into the real challenges of applying probabilistic AI in a deterministic, safety-first industry. 🎧 Listen now as we uncover the secrets to 10X engineering productivity: Hear directly from the CEOs of cutting-edge companies like Leo AI, OpenBOM, Duro, First Resonance, Synera, Authentise, and Quanscient about the breakthroughs changing the game: The LMM is HERE: Leo AI built the world's first Large Mechanical Model (LMM), trained on hundreds of millions of machine parts (not Reddit!) to eliminate hallucinations and redesign parts instantly.Quantum Leap in Simulation: Quanscient is solving multi-physics (CFD) problems using novel hybrid classical/quantum methods, achieving massive simulation throughput to validate designs faster than ever.Ending Industrial Amnesia: InUse fights retirement waves by using AI to capitalize and reuse field service knowledge, turning machine data into actionable wisdom (Servitization).2D to 3D Automation: SP3D automates the reconstruction of 3D models from complex 2D technical drawings, solving a "huge pain point" in industrial digitization.The Agentic Future: We dissect the power of Model Context Protocol (MCP), calling it the "USBC for AI," which allows specialized agents to collaborate and accelerate workflows across the entire PLM lifecycle.Forget the fantasy of "Vibe Coding." We discuss how AI is really being used by developers and engineers: AI as an Accelerator: Development teams at startups like Duro and InUse use tools like Cursor and Claude to accelerate code development, brainstorming, testing, and dramatically increase output.The Need for Trust: Industrial applications demand "determinism and explainability". Solutions must rely on trusted data, such as a company's internal knowledge graph, not anonymous web content.Augment, Not Replace: AI's biggest role is augmenting human capacity, taking away "manual grunt work" (like report generation, anomaly detection, and material data entry) to let engineers focus on creativity.AI isn't stealing jobs; it's demanding new skills. Experts advise younger listeners to embrace these tools and "turn up with real energy every day," focusing on adaptability and learning how to prompt, guide, and criticize AI output. Don't get left behind. Hear the blueprint for the AI factory of the future. ➡️ SUBSCRIBE NOW to AI Across the Product Lifecycle! Feat. Dr. Bob Engels (Capgemini Engineering), Michael Corr (Duro), Maor Farid (Leo AI), Laurent Couilland (InUse), and more! 🚀 MEET THE INNOVATORS🛠️ THE REALITY OF ENGINEERING AI💡 ADVICE FOR THE FUTURE ENGINEER

18 min
10/28/2025

AAPL: French Touch 1 - InUse and SP3D

What if your machines could talk… and your 2D drawings rebuilt themselves into 3D? That’s not science fiction — it’s what’s already happening in French industrial AI. In this episode of AI Across the Product Lifecycle, I sat down with 🇫🇷 Laurent Couillard, CEO of InUse, and 🇫🇷 Olivier Mathey, CEO of SP3D, two founders who are quietly reprogramming the future of manufacturing. 🔧 InUse helps factories fight “industrial amnesia” — capturing the know-how of retiring technicians so machines can literally explain themselves using agentic AI. 📐 SP3D is tackling one of the hardest nuts in design automation: converting 2D drawings into manufacturable 3D models — no CAD expert required. Together, we dove into: ⚙️ Why GenAI isn’t replacing engineers — it’s giving them back their time. ⚙️ How speed + quality (not size) are the real AI advantages against billion-dollar incumbents. ⚙️ Why the “silver tsunami” of retiring experts makes AI adoption not optional but existential. ⚙️ And how Europe’s sovereign AI wave (think Mistral, not Mountain View) is shaping a new industrial balance. 🎧 Watch here: [YouTube Link] #AIAcrossTheProductLifecycle #BetterCallFino #EngineeringSoftwareStartups #IndustrialAI #PLM

1h 4m
10/21/2025

AI Across the Product Lifecycle: Synera and Authentise

⚡ Engineering workflows are being rewritten by AI.But what happens when low-code engineering automation meets digital manufacturing intelligence?In a this episode of AI Across the Product Lifecycle, I was joined by: • Andrew Sartorelli, Product Management & Partnership Lead of Synera – pioneers of low-code engineering and simulation workflows • André Wegner, CEO of Authentise – leaders in digital manufacturing, data-driven production, and automation🎙️ Together, we explored: • How AI is transforming engineering automation and manufacturing execution • Why openness and interoperability are critical for scaling AI in industry • Real-world lessons from two of Europe’s most innovative industrial software leaders👉 Streaming live on LinkedIn and YouTube via Riverside.📌 Key takeaways: • The convergence of design automation and digital manufacturing • How AI is enabling agility in engineering + production • Where startups are outpacing incumbents in the race for agentic workflowsDM me if you’d like more insights on the 300+ engineering software and industrial AI startups in my database.#BetterCallFino #AIAcrossTheProductLifecycle #PLM #EngineeringSoftware #AI #DigitalManufacturing #AgenticAI

58 min
10/19/2025

The Future of PLM: Is PLM Dead Long Live the Digital Thread!

🤔 PLM is dead? Long live the digital thread! 😄 The future of Product Lifecycle Management took center stage with a diverse chorus of industry visionaries:- Christine Longwell: “As long as PLM is considered a PLM tool from a vendor, it will never get the corporate attention that it needs to get funding for that information to break out of your engineering system. You need PLM to go through your services group, to manage ideation, to listen to what the customers want.” - Oleg Shilovitsky: “I think the names and the three letter acronyms are essentially dead. That’s why we cannot invent a better one—because we already invented one and some people like it and hate it.” - Martin Eigner: “My dream, my really dream, is to build up a symmetrical data model—a digital thread above all the legacy systems—so end-to-end processes like release management, change management, configuration management, quality management sit on top of these processes.”- P atrick Hillberg Ph.D. Hillberg: “PLM is to product lifecycle management what IBM is to international business machines—it’s an acronym that no longer means what it meant when it started. If we want to manage product life cycles, we need to figure out how to integrate the databases to create a digital thread.” - Jos Voskuil: “Recently, I’m working a lot with companies and I don’t mention the ‘P word’ anymore...I think we all agree we have to solve business issues and those business issues because of digitalization can now become end-to-end business issues.”- Brion Carroll: “If we keep that term [PLM], we should make it be what it actually is, not what it’s been serviced as vendor products. We should begin to champion stretching PLM to be ideation to commercialization—and back.”- Brion Carroll (II): “Introducing the digital thread to people in manufacturing and why they need to look upstream is a conversation I have regularly to find that business imperative… It’s weird that the people who drive business continuity all the way from ideation to on the shelf have the pedigree of PLM.”- Juliann Grant: “PLM doesn’t really get its rightful due when it comes to looking at the C-level. ERP gets the right money and resources, but PLM is tougher because it touches so many places—from incoming marketing, sales, design, to service.”- Jim Brown: “It doesn’t matter what we call it. It’s about what are the business problems that need to be solved. It’s more important about the strategy first and about the business processes, and what vendors call PLM today isn’t enough to fulfill that.”- Rob Ferrone: “For at least my first five years, I didn’t even know we were doing product data management. For the next ten years, I hadn’t even heard of PLM—yet we’d grown the company to over a hundred people by then doing product data management across the life cycle.”Full webcast here: https://lnkd.in/eCjgW-sB #PLM #DigitalThread #BetterCallFino #TheFutureOfPLM #Podcast

1h 3m
10/19/2025

AI Across the Product Lifecycle: Design Intelligence - Hestus and C-Infinity

🚀 AI Across the Product Lifecycle – Founders on the Edge Two brilliant minds are reshaping engineering with AI: 🔹 Sai Nelaturi (C-Infinity) – building the next generation of physics-AI platforms to push product design beyond today’s limits. 🔹 Sohrab Haghighat (Hestus) – tackling the hardest problems in generative engineering with bleeding-edge algorithms that rethink how products are conceived. We’ll dive into: ✅ How AI is rewriting the rules of design and simulation ✅ The different bets each founder is making on where AI adds the most value ✅ What it means to operate at the true frontier of engineering software 👉 DM me for details on my research into 300+ AI + engineering startups shaping the future of CAD, PLM, and manufacturing. #BetterCallFino #AIAcrossTheProductLifecycle #PLM #EngineeringSoftware #Startups

1 hr
10/19/2025

AI Across The Product Lifecycle: Engineering Meets AI - OpenBOM and Leo AI⁠

🤖 From CAD copilots to AI-driven supply chains — the future of product development is changing fast. In this episode of AI Across the Product Lifecycle, I was joined by: • Maor Farid, CEO of Leo AI – building copilots that augment engineers directly inside CAD • Oleg Shilovitsky, CEO of OpenBOM – transforming supply chain collaboration and BOM management with cloud + AI 🎙️ Together, we explored: • How AI copilots are reshaping engineering productivity inside CAD • Why open data + interoperability are essential for PLM and supply chain innovation • The convergence of design, collaboration, and procurement in an AI-first world 📌 Key takeaways: • Practical applications of AI in CAD and BOM today • How startups are redefining workflows that incumbents have left stagnant • What an agentic product lifecycle really looks like when design meets supply chain intelligence 🔗 DM me for more on the 300+ engineering software and industrial AI startups in my database. #BetterCallFino #AIAcrossTheProductLifecycle #PLM #EngineeringSoftware #AI #CAD #SupplyChain #AgenticAI

1h 1m

We'll talk about digital transformation and artificial intelligence and how they impact 21st century manufacturing. I have 30 years of PLM experience and wanted to share my knowledge and transmit to the next generation while also upgrading my ideas to the new Agentic AI / MCP ever-evolving paradigms!

Creator

Michael Finocchiaro
Years Active

2K
Episodes

15
Rating

Explicit
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© Michael Finocchiaro
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The Future of PLM Webcasts