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Recorded live from Hannover Messe 2025, Tulip CEO Natan Linder and CMO Madilynn Castillo sat down in the middle of Hall 15; surrounded by booths, banners, and “Built for Industrial AI” signs — to cut through the noise.
The result is one of the most candid episodes of The Augmented Ops Podcast to date: an unfiltered look at where manufacturing AI really stands, what’s changing, and what still isn’t.
If Hannover Messe 2023 was the year AI arrived in manufacturing, 2025 may have been the year it took over.
Everywhere they looked, Natan and Madi saw the same three letters — AI — attached to every product, service, and solution. From “Factory Intelligence” to “AI for Everything,” the fair had turned into what Natan called a “copilot festival.”
Yet beneath the slogans, they saw something else: confusion.
“Our industry pretends to move fast,” Natan said, “but in reality it’s kind of slow.”
Manufacturers came to learn and left with questions. What does “industrial AI” actually mean? Which technologies are real, and which are rebranded versions of legacy systems with a new coat of paint?
As Natan put it, “It’s the same demos, the same software — just with an AI sticker on top.”
For all the hype, one idea was conspicuously missing from most of Hannover Messe: AI for the people who actually do the work.
Natan and Madi reflected on how much of the industry still treats AI as something happening to people rather than for them. The booths were full of “intelligent factories” and “smart production systems,” but few focused on how these tools empower the frontline teams who keep operations running.
“People today work for the systems they bought 10 or 15 years ago,” Natan said. “Those systems don’t work for them.”
That, Madi added, is the real opportunity for AI — to give time and agency back to operators, engineers, and teams making decisions every day.
Tulip’s own approach to AI is rooted in that principle: using intelligence to remove administrative burden and simplify creation. Whether through AI Composer or agent-based workflows, the goal isn’t to automate people out of the process but to help them spend more time where their judgment matters most.
Beyond the branding and noise, Natan’s biggest frustration came down to one word: interoperability.
As vendors raced to showcase proprietary “AI platforms,” few were addressing the harder challenge — making AI systems talk to each other. Without that foundation, even the most advanced demos risk becoming isolated silos.
Natan argued that interoperability isn’t a futuristic concept; it’s basic plumbing. Models — from large language to smaller, edge-based systems — need to share data, context, and decisions across platforms if manufacturers are to gain real value.
“We don’t have to overcomplicate this,” he said. “It’s good old-fashioned APIs.”
Madi agreed that progress depends on collaboration. Analysts and customers are asking tougher questions: How will agents interact across systems? What standards are emerging for shared protocols? The answers, they agreed, will define the next phase of AI maturity in manufacturing.
If one phrase summed up the show, it was Madi’s offhand remark: “AI washing.”
Too many vendors, they observed, were selling yesterday’s software with today’s vocabulary. The danger isn’t just confusion — it’s distraction. When marketing claims outpace technical reality, manufacturers risk investing in tools that overpromise and underdeliver.
What stood out most to Natan and Madi were the few companies tackling the hard problems: data quality, human context, and the practical deployment of AI on the shop floor.
Because at the end of the day, real transformation doesn’t come from rebranding. It comes from connecting people, processes, and systems in ways that make work better.
Hannover Messe 2025 was a snapshot of an industry in transition — full of potential, but still learning how to turn ideas into impact.
For all the marketing buzz, Natan and Madi left with optimism. Beneath the noise, real progress is happening: manufacturers are experimenting, asking smarter questions, and demanding solutions that work at the front line, not just in the cloud.
“What makes a factory smart isn’t the automation or the software,” Natan said. “It’s the people in it.”
🎧 Listen to the full episode and explore more conversations with industry leaders at AugmentedOps.com — where you can subscribe for future episodes and catch up on past seasons.
