Google Cloud and industrial automation and software leader Siemens have come together to assist optimise factory processes and improve productivity on the shop floor with AI/ML driven solutions.

Siemens will join Google Cloud's leading data cloud and artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) technologies with its factory automation solutions to assist manufacturers innovate for the future, the companies stated in a statement.

"The potential for artificial intelligence to radically change the plant floor is far from being exhausted. Many manufacturers are still stuck in AI 'pilot projects', we want to change that," stated Axel Lorenz, VP of Control at Factory Automation of Siemens Digital Industries.

"Combining AI/ML technology from Google Cloud with Siemens' solutions for Industrial Edge and industrial operation will be a game changer for the manufacturing industry," Lorenz added in a statement.

By combining Google Cloud's data cloud and AI/ML capabilities with Siemens' Digital Industries Factory Automation portfolio, manufacturers will be able to "harmonise their factory data, run cloud-based AI/ML models on top of that data, and deploy algorithms at the network edge".

"By simplifying the deployment of AI in industrial use cases, we're helping employees augment their critical work on the shop floor," stated Dominik Wee, Managing Director Manufacturing and Industrial at Google Cloud.