"Because of artificial intelligence (AI), the silos—system barriers—that have been built within industrial sites for design, manufacturing, sales and other functions will be torn down."
Michel Ash, CEO of Dassault Systèmes Simulia, met with reporters at "Simulia User Day 2026," held Wednesday at the Parnas Hotel in Seoul, and said, "Humans have limits in thinking about multiple topics simultaneously, but AI breaks down these barriers and provides the capability to collaborate in terms of speed and scale." He explained that AI will lower the boundaries between organizations within companies and increase connectivity across the entire product development process, including design, production and supply chains, fundamentally changing the way collaboration is done at industrial sites.
Dassault Systèmes, a France-based global software company, provides companies with "virtual twin" technology—a concept that expands the digital twin to reproduce not only the three-dimensional (3D) shape of physical objects but also their movement and evolution through real-time simulation. Simulia is the simulation brand for the virtual twin, a solution that evaluates performance, safety and other factors in a virtual environment before products are made.
He said, "Ford Motor reduced design work that previously took 40 hours to four hours through MODSIM, an integrated modeling and simulation system, and by using AI-based MODSIM, it will have the capability to process it in four minutes," predicting that advances in AI-based simulation technology will drive manufacturing innovation.
Ash stressed that at the center of this innovation is the "3D UNIV+RSES," which combines AI with the virtual twin to implement the entire product lifecycle in virtual space. "The key is connecting product design and simulation, as well as the manufacturing process, supply chain, operations, maintenance and recycling stages, within a single virtual twin environment," he said. "Understanding how a product will behave throughout its lifecycle is the 3D Universe." He continued, "Our vision is to provide the capability to understand the entire universe of a product even before building a prototype," adding, "This speeds up time to market, allows the development of more robust and longer-lasting products, and reduces resource usage by cutting the number of prototypes."
He assessed that the strategic partnership with Nvidia has also established itself as a key pillar for implementing the 3D Universe. Earlier, in February this year, Dassault Systèmes and Nvidia agreed to cooperate on implementing the 3D Universe. Ash said, "Nvidia is looking in exactly the same direction as our vision, and this is one of the reasons we have a strong partnership with Nvidia." He added, "We are advancing simulation performance by working closely with Nvidia, including using graphics processing units (GPUs) to speed up the solver, which is the core simulation." He continued, "We are currently applying the results of our cooperation with Nvidia starting with North American customers, and we will soon apply it to the Asia region as well."
Finally, he explained that AI is not a technology meant to replace engineers. "It will serve to augment human capabilities by reducing repetitive tasks and allowing people to focus on more creative problem-solving," Ash said.
