From Automation To Autonomy: Cisco And Rockwell Power A New Era For Manufacturing
CISCO, Monday, April 20th, 2026
The factory floor is where innovation often shows up first, and where it's tested the hardest. Systems are always on. Decisions happen in milliseconds. Downtime and errors carry immediate cost.
When AI fails in manufacturing, it's usually on the production line. A model that worked perfectly in testing starts missing defects. A system designed to predict failures loses visibility. Latency creeps in. Data doesn't arrive when it should. Productivity falls, quality suffers, and small issues quickly become operational problems.
In my conversations with manufacturers, I hear the same thing time and again: Teams can prove what's possible in a controlled setting, but extending that capability across data centers, production systems, lines, plants, and regions, is far more difficult.