General interest in artificial intelligence (AI) is exploding, generating questions, fears, excitement and pilot projects across industries, from advertising to zoology. Industrial automation and control professionals have often been ahead of the curve on such high-tech topics, so it’s not a surprise that a search of Automation.com reveals hundreds of articles on industrial AI strategies, software and applications.
For those wanting to understand where industrial AI is today, this issue of Automation.com Monthly is a good place to start. For those keen on moving beyond pilot projects and predictive maintenance into generative AI productivity and real-time autonomous control, join the ISA Connect community and one or more of its 33 technical forums. Within Connect Forum message boards, members engage with automation professionals across sectors, dive deep into cutting-edge automation topics and get real-time answers to tough questions.
One member asked, “Are there established standards that guide the implementation of AI technologies in operational technology environments?” Eric Cosman, ISA fellow and former ISA president (2020), said, “AI being a relatively new, breaking technology, I am not aware of any existing standard for its application in automation…. Keep in mind that the standards development process can take years. The purpose of such standards is to recognize commonly accepted practices, and these are rapidly evolving.”
Jonas Berge, ISA Fellow and senior director of applied technology for Emerson, also responded with thoughtful questions and commentary:
"Not aware of any AI standards. Is there any particular aspect of industrial AI you are seeking guidance for? Industrial standards usually cover aspects such as:
- For things to work (fit/integrate) together (mechanical, electrical, and digital interfaces)
- Users and vendors to communicate and document without misunderstanding ("human interfaces": terminology, diagrams, models)
- Best practices for management (quality, reliability, maintenance, safety, security, sustainability…)
- Specification guideline for products (required features, performance…)
Any of these aspects, or something else? Standards for industrial AI would certainly be good:
- Software interfaces are already standardized, such as OPC-UA.
- It would be good to standardize on terminology such as “causal AI” or should we say “mechanistic AI” or maybe physics-based AI. – Compare confusion around the meaning of “digital twin."
- How do we safely use LLM [large language model] output in a plant?
- In which applications do I use LLM, ML, DL, or Causal AI – I have posted on this before."
Figure 1: Jonas Berge, an ISA Fellow active in the ISA Connect Forum on Artificial Intelligence, explained industrial AI tools and applications in a Connect Live presentation on Dec. 3.
ISA hosts Connect Live event on generative AI
In a separate thread, Berge shared his thoughts on working with generative AI (GenAI) in plants and provided a link to his LinkedIn post on the topic: “Automating tasks can certainly help make the plant a safer place to work. However, care must be taken with it because we know #GenAI has 'hallucinations' (Inaccurate) and other problems like Unspecific, Irrelevant, Outdated, and Incomplete [results]. But there are ways to tackle this. We just need to be aware of them.”
The Connect Forum on Artificial Intelligence hosted its first Connect Live event—a brief presentation or panel discussion followed by questions and open discussion —on December 3 with Jonas Berge as the presenter. He explained the four forms of AI (machine learning, deep learning, causal AI, and generative AI) and provided industrial application examples in operations, sustainability and maintenance. He also explained how industrial AI supports plant automation modernization projects. More than 300 people signed up to attend.
So even though the standards development process can take years, discussion around industrial AI uses, safeguards and best practices is happening now. Automation.com is providing insights and ISA Connect Forums are enabling interaction with leading automation professionals from around the world.
Become a member of ISA to reap the benefits. ISA Connect member Adrian Offield, business development director with Supply & Support Service Systems Ltd. in Jannusan, Bahrain, said, “Regardless of company, role or position, [ISA Connect Forums] provide communication of knowledge; sounding out of ideas, soliciting opinions or just finding a better way of doing things. I would recommend to any engineer or aspiring engineer, regardless of their roles, to sign up and start expanding their knowledge.”
This column is from the November/December 2025 issue of Automation.com Monthly.
