Episode 148 - Andre Marino, Senior Vice President, Industrial Automation, NAM, Schneider Electric

"AI needs data, and industrial data is not available on the general internet."  “It's not like you do either AI or manufacturing. If you're smart, you optimize what you have. You would be amazed how much you can gain by just retrofitting your old asset.” AI is finally moving “from PowerPoints to the real world” on the factory floor, but it can’t deliver when fed siloed, proprietary data. For Schneider Electric’s Andre Marino, the foundation comes first: open, software-defined automation that harmonizes industrial data, so manufacturers can train AI models on their own operations instead of buying technology and getting frustrated. In this episode of Manufacturing Matters, TECH B2B Marketing’s Jimmy Carroll sits down with Marino at Automate 2026 in Chicago to talk through what it takes for manufacturers to modernize and compete — from the hyperscale “AI factories” racing to add capacity to the small and midsize companies that make up 85% of the U.S. manufacturing base. The conversation covers the growing competition for energy between AI data centers and factories and why the answer isn’t adding capacity alone while digging into digital twins for upgrading lines with minimal downtime, closing the skills gap by drawing IT talent into the OT world, and a task-first (not form-first) take on humanoid robots and world models. Additionally, the discussion covers what Marino would like to see in U.S. robotics legislation, and his playbook for smaller manufacturers: know what you’re solving for, digitize, automate, optimize — and repeat.Support the show