This week on Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering, hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott are joined by special guest Ashish Kulkarni, Senior PLM Leader at Razorleaf International (Netherlands), for a dual-continent recap of CIMdata's Annual Market and Industry Conference — held simultaneously in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Paris, France.
Between them, the three cover the global PLM market data, the AI conversation dominating the industry, vendor vs. buyer disconnects, and what it all means if you work in digital engineering, PLM, or manufacturing technology.
Key Takeaways:
The global PLM market grew 8.7% to $87.3 billion — strong, but below the 9.3% forecast
Top PLM investment priorities have shifted: knowledge management, global collaboration, and configurability are now leading over traditional part and BOM management
The percentage of respondents saying PLM has "run its course" jumped from 22% in 2025 to 55% in 2026 — a striking shift in market sentiment
AI is not replacing PLM — yet. But the question is now being asked openly, especially in Europe
Architecture/Engineering/Construction (AEC) and Electronic Design Automation (EDA) were the surprise growth leaders, with AEC growth well above forecast
CIMdata recategorized how it reports the market: moving from CPDM to "Product Innovation Platforms," with new scrutiny on how tools vs. platforms are classified
A "fluency-deployment divide" is emerging end users are experimenting with AI tools like ChatGPT, but in-house enterprise AI deployments in PLM are still very early
Vendors are racing to embed AI capabilities; buyers are moving slower and prioritizing data readiness first
Fear factors around AI — "your data has to be perfect before you can use it" — are being actively addressed by presenters like Diego Tamburini
About Our Guest
Ashish Kulkarni is a Senior PLM Leader at Razorleaf International, based in the Netherlands. With over 23 years of experience driving enterprise-scale digital transformation across Europe and 15+ years in PLM (including ENOVIA), Ashish has led strategic growth across Europe and the Mediterranean region. He was instrumental in building and growing the Razorleaf India office.
Podden och tillhörande omslagsbild på den här sidan tillhör
Razorleaf Corp.. Innehållet i podden är skapat av Razorleaf Corp. och inte av,
eller tillsammans med, Poddtoppen.
