We’re amid the fastest transformation industrial automation has ever seen, said Lal Karsanbhai, president and CEO, Emerson, as he kicked off Emerson Exchange 2025 at the Henry B. González Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas, on May 20. He also told the more than 2,800 attendees that the industry has already shifted and everyone must adapt, optimize and innovate to continue to compete.
It's a journey industry has already begun and will continue for quite some time. “Each person in this room has adjusted to new ways of working,” he said from the stage at the Lila Cockrell Theatre. “Everyone has already been tested, but this is not the finish line.”
He included Emerson in his assessment, noting how the company has been fundamentally restructured to focus on industrial automation. Meanwhile, automation best practices are converging on unified architectures and software-defined integrated solutions.
“The structures that once managed complexity now cause pressure,” Karsanbhai added, noting that emerging technologies such as AI are raising expectations among end users.
Shaping what’s next
In the face of dynamic markets with competing priorities, Karsanbhai said the industrial sector must move quickly to push these changes forward, acting with purpose and conviction. “This moment demands the ability to see what’s ahead, and Emerson is in the business of shaping what’s next,” Karsanbhai said. The fruits of those labors are already evident in the exhibit hall where Emerson experts showed off innovative technologies aimed at creating those software-defined solutions that industry needs to advance.
Emerson has been on a journey to transform in step change with this evolution, especially since Karsanbhai was named president and CEO in 2018. At the time he moved into his position, the company needed to adapt to compete in the quickly evolving industrial landscape, he said. It made $40 billion of mergers and acquisition over the past four years, including the acquisition of AspenTech, which Karsanbhai said has been instrumental in addressing the need for data-centric, software-defined solutions. “Software is increasingly vital to our customers,” he said.
Emerson also focused on developing better management processes, resulting in a purpose-built company best positioned to lead the emerging era of industrial automation, Karsanbhai said. He added that the effort required vision, courage and focus, and that the company’s—and industry’s—journeys are just beginning.
Going beyond boundless
Karsanbhai further emphasized Emerson’s vision for an industrial automation platform that integrates operations across the intelligent field, edge and cloud to empower enterprise-wide optimization and automation. Originally launched in 2022, “Boundless Automation,” Karsanbhai said, fits with the future of industry. It gives users the ability to optimize locally and adapt to changes in operations instantaneously. “Our software portfolio enables better decision-making,” he said.
Karsanbhai also revealed the company’s next step in that journey: “Project Beyond,” a software-defined, OT-ready digital platform that seamlessly integrates and optimizes industrial operations. It leverages innovations in software-defined control, data management, zero-trust cybersecurity and AI, to help automation investments deliver greater value without adding complexity.
Today’s industrial assets require cost-efficient ways for companies to leverage automation across the enterprise while protecting existing investments, Karsanbhai said. Project Beyond accomplishes this by providing a flexible, scalable and secure platform that connects the existing automation installed base with modern technologies to empower continuous enterprise-wide visibility, optimization and, eventually, autonomous operations. It also provides a consistent platform to deploy and manage new AI applications and models, along with contextualized data, to unlock unimagined flexibility, safety, sustainability and performance for essential industries such as energy, power, life sciences, chemicals and mining.
“This innovation will augment your existing technologies,” he said. And it’s the next step in a journey toward the next era of industrial automation.
