The energy at AWS re:Invent 2025 in Las Vegas was undeniable. The narrative has shifted decisively from the passive "Industrial Copilots" of last year to active, autonomous Agentic AI. Everywhere you looked, the talk was of autonomous swarms, "Supervisor Agents," and the new Strands Agents SDK empowering developers to build digital workers that can reason and act.

However, as I (Colin Masson of ARC Advisory Group) noted in my recent Top 10 Takeaways for Industrial AI from AWS re:Invent 2025, there is a stark divergence between the "hyperscaler dream" and the "brownfield reality." For manufacturers dealing with 20-year-old assets, proprietary protocols, and disparate silos, building these agents often hits a brick wall—the "Factory Wall." An AI agent is only as intelligent as the context it is fed, and in most factories, that context is trapped in the machine layer.

To explore how the industry is breaking through this barrier, I sat down at re:Invent with Joe Rosing, Worldwide Head of Smart Manufacturing at AWS, and Torey Penrod-Cambra, Co-Founder and Chief Communications Officer at HighByte. We discussed the critical role of Industrial DataOps in untangling the mess of industrial data to fuel the next generation of AI.

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It's impossible to ignore the tidal wave of excitement and hype surrounding Generative AI. However, at ARC Advisory Group, we consistently advise our Industrial Sector clients that success in this new era requires understanding the entire Industrial AI Toolbox, not just the newest, shiniest instrument. This ongoing Industrial AI (R)Evolution is fundamentally reshaping operations and architecture across IT, OT, ET, and Data Science domains.

To cut through the noise and provide clear guidance, I've been hosting a detailed podcast series on Industrial AI with thought leaders across the ecosystem. In this context, Colin Masson, Director of Research for Industrial AI was thrilled to welcome Dustin Johnson, CTO of Seeq Corporation, back for their third conversation.

Would you like to be a guest on our growing podcast?

Do you have an intriguing or thought provoking topic you'd like to discuss on our podcast? Please contact Our Producer Tom Cabot at: Tcabot@Arcweb.com

View all the episodes here: https://thedigitaltransformationpodcast.buzzsprout.com

In our first ARC Advisory Group SPARC podcast, Steve Blackwell of AWS and I explored the vision for Software Defined Manufacturing, where Agentic AI acts as the "brain and central nervous system." Our second conversation brought that vision to the factory floor, examining the "muscles" of the operation with the rise of Physical and Embodied AI.

In this third installment of our ongoing dialogue, we connect the brain and the muscles. A central theme in my new ARC research series on the Voyage to Physical Intelligence is that for any system to perceive, reason, and act in the physical world, it needs a deep, contextual understanding of that world. This brings us to the critical role of the digital twin—not as a static model, but as a live, learning environment that serves as the foundation for the next wave of industrial autonomy.

Would you like to be a guest on our growing podcast?

Do you have an intriguing or thought provoking topic you'd like to discuss on our podcast? Please contact Our Producer Tom Cabot at: Tcabot@Arcweb.com

View all the episodes here: https://thedigitaltransformationpodcast.buzzsprout.com