Neil Smith, CPG Segment President at Schneider Electric, and Jochen Weiland, VP Motion Control, discuss the critical challenges facing CPG manufacturers in the DACH region. According to Schneider’s survey of 1,400 executives worldwide, manufacturers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland are losing 12% of their manufacturing value due to downtime, waste and operational inefficiencies – a figure projected to double to 25% over the next five years. The experts explain how AI-enabled automation solutions can address these challenges, but reveal a significant disconnect between AI ambitions and actual implementation. Key barriers include lack of contextualized data, legacy systems, and skills gaps. They emphasize that successful AI deployment requires proper infrastructure foundations and open software-defined automation systems that can integrate existing equipment with new technologies. #interpack #industrialAI #CPG #automation #SchneiderElectric #manufacturing #DACH #packaging #digitaltransformation #industry40