Rockwell launches FactoryTalk Conductor to run AI agents across automation tools, sales in Q1 2027

Rockwell Automation said in a press release on Oct 21 that it has introduced FactoryTalk Conductor, software that lets engineers start design, programming, simulation and test tasks in natural language and hands each task to AI agents and Rockwell tools.

At launch it works with Studio 5000 Logix Designer, Logix Echo, the Emulate3D simulator and FactoryTalk Optix, with FactoryTalk Design Studio, Historian, Plex and Fiix to follow; customers can connect Rockwell-hosted models or their own large or small language models, including locally hosted open-weight models, and can build their own agents and skills.

The company said the product will be previewed at Automation Fair 2026 in Boston and is expected to be commercially available in the first quarter of 2027; no price was given. Rockwell cited its own 2026 manufacturing survey, which found a third of manufacturing operations already use AI.

MEKAWIRE context: the launch came the same day NVIDIA expanded its Isaac and Cosmos simulation tools at GTC Berlin, as both controls vendors and chip makers try to own the software layer between AI models and factory equipment.