The Future-Ready Podcast: Industry & Beyond

Pharmaceutical and life sciences companies are exploring advanced digital technologies to help speed up development and manufacturing. The Digital Twin, Industrial AI and the Industrial Metaverse can offer solutions, but operate best when built on a strong data foundation.In this episode of the Future Ready Podcast from Siemens, hear experts on the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry explore the potential of Industrial AI and the Industrial Metaverse, as well as the importance of strong data foundations.In this episode you’ll learn about: (00:00) Introduction(00:47) Less obvious AI applications(04:29) Using frameworks to manage AI risk(07:41) The Industrial Metaverse in pharma(18:05) Guiding principles for navigating complexity and changeAbout the voices: Maria Grahm is the Global VP of Life Sciences for Siemens. Maria is responsible for managing how Siemens applies its full portfolio, including smart infrastructure, digital industries, and software, to lead digital transformation from molecule to market.Andy Whytock is the Head of Market Strategy and Thought Leadership of Life Sciences at Siemens. Andy is responsible for driving digital transformation initiatives and thought leadership activities in the pharmaceutical and life sciences sector and specializes in helping life sciences manufacturers embrace digital transformation, adopt cutting-edge technologies and evolve into fully connected, data-driven and sustainable enterprises.Conor Peick is a Marketing Professional creating forward-looking content for the Thought Leadership team at Siemens Digital Industries Software. Conor collaborates with industry experts and executives to produce impactful content exploring the challenges companies face and the technologies that can provide solutions.

Opportunity and growth are two of the most sought after components for building a successful business. That’s why the changes happening on the shop floor and in operations are so interesting. They’re not just for the passionate engineers who want to use a new tool or solve a new problem. No, the market on the whole is expected to double in the next five years.At the center of this shift is Software-defined Automation. The idea is simple: move more functionality into software so production systems can become more adaptable. On top of that, AI - and increasingly physical AI - is starting to change how decisions are made on the shop floor. Today, many systems are still reactive: they detect an issue and help operators respond. But the next step is already taking shape.In this episode you’ll learn about:(00:00) Introduction(01:00) Value from the value chain(04:49) Creating market opportunities(09:06) Proactive shop floors(15:20) The future of operationsAbout the voices:Mark Hindsbo joined Siemens in 2025 as Head of Operations Software. He is leading a team to build an integrated and modular industrial operations software suite that allows customers to design, engineer, and operate their factories, data centers, or plants – powered by agentic AI and digital twins. His extensive career includes leadership roles at Ansys, Parallels, and Microsoft, alongside experiences at The Boston Consulting Group, Novo Nordisk, and CERN. Mark is also an Adjunct Professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Born and educated in Denmark, he holds an M.S. in Applied Physics & Mathematics from the Technical University of Denmark.Nick Finberg is a technical marketing writer and coordinator for Software-Defined Everything, with a background in Nuclear Engineering. He has worked with experts to cover many industries and topics including Automotive, Battery, sustainability, and systems engineering.

Consumer products companies have some of the largest portfolios of any businesses around the world. But even with the large overlap between products, many still operate within a more permanent framework for manufacturing. Make a large lot all at once, then adjust to the next product run. This is anathema to the consumer trends many of these companies are trying to follow.Software is helping change that. And Alastair Orchard joins us on the podcast to talk about how. From production change-overs to demand planning, let’s dive into the evolving shop floor and how it is impacting industries like consumer products.In this episode you’ll learn about:(00:00) Curious consumer products(05:43) Flexibility at scale(14:30) On demand production(16:41) An eye on the futureAbout the voices:Alastair Orchard runs Digital Enterprise Thought Leadership for Siemens Digital Industries, working with customers to become more flexible, cost effective, transparent and collaborative organizations. All while bringing their world-class products to market faster than their competitors. He is also the co-founder and CTO of dimax.cloud – a distributed manufacturing platform cutting costs, carbon and complexity from supply chains.Nick Finberg is a technical marketing writer and coordinator for Software-Defined Everything, with a background in Nuclear Engineering. He has worked with experts to cover many industries and topics including Automotive, Battery, sustainability, and systems engineering.

Robotics have been a staple in manufacturing for decades, allowing certain repetitive tasks to be automated yet, for as powerful as automation is, replicating full human-like abilities is difficult to achieve. By incorporating AI with advanced robotics, a new level of flexible, adaptable, robotic systems can not only take on tasks previously limited to humans, but also support rapid product iteration and development in a way never before possible.In this episode, host Spencer Acain is joined by Christopher Schuette, Senior Product Portfolio Manager for Robotics AI at Siemens Digital Industries to examine what it takes to build production ready Industrial AI solutions capable of operating complex machines under a variety of conditions.In the episode you’ll learn about:(2:12) Upgrading to AI-powered robotics(4:23) Building more dynamic robotics with AI(9:41) Training AI for the shop floor(12:58) Data needs for production ready AIAbout the voices:Christopher Schuette is the Senior Product Portfolio Manager for Robotics AI at Siemens Digital IndustriesSpencer Acain is a technical marketing writer for AI thought leadership at Siemens Digital Industries with a background in Applied Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering.

As pharmaceutical and life sciences companies work to accelerate development processes, digital technologies offer a path to greater efficiency, adaptability and speed. The Digital Twin and Industrial AI are expected to become particularly impactful.In this episode of the Future Ready Podcast from Siemens, listen to experts on the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry dive into how digital transformation speeds development, the modeling of molecules with the Digital Twin and how AI is already influencing drug discovery.In this episode you’ll learn about: (00:00) Introduction(01:02) Digitalization in drug development(06:38) Using the Digital Twin in tech transfers(09:46) The Digital Twin from molecule to market(17:02) Scaling Industrial AI across the lifecycleAbout the voices: Maria Grahm is the Global VP of Life Sciences for Siemens. Maria is responsible for managing how Siemens applies its full portfolio, including smart infrastructure, digital industries, and software, to lead digital transformation from molecule to market.Andy Whytock is the Head of Market Strategy and Thought Leadership of Life Sciences at Siemens. Andy is responsible for driving digital transformation initiatives and thought leadership activities in the pharmaceutical and life sciences sector and specializes in helping life sciences manufacturers embrace digital transformation, adopt cutting-edge technologies and evolve into fully connected, data-driven and sustainable enterprises.Conor Peick is a Marketing Professional creating forward-looking content for the Thought Leadership team at Siemens Digital Industries Software. Conor collaborates with industry experts and executives to produce impactful content exploring the challenges companies face and the technologies that can provide solutions.