HOUSTON (February 4): The world has yet to encounter innovative applications of artificial intelligence (AI), but engineering will be the main driver of AI innovation, according to Manish Kumar, chief executive officer and vice president of research and development at Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks.
To provide engineers and creators with the right AI tools, Solidworks announced three new AI companions on the Solidworks platform: computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided engineering (CAE) software.
“For the creators in this room, your judgment, your skills, and your ability to build a physical world are more important than ever. Brains need bodies. Similarly, AI depends on the physical world, and engineering is the industrial backbone of AI,” Manish said during the opening day general session of 3DExperience World 2026 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas.
Our three AI companions, Aura, Leo, and Marie, were developed based on our employees’ decades of expertise and combined with our users’ knowledge to create more innovative results.
Aura functions similarly to a product manager, coordinating knowledge and context from project requirements. Leo focuses on engineering reasoning, mechanics, structures, behavior, simulation, and manufacturing. and Marie provides expertise in scientific information such as chemistry, formulation, and regulation.
Manish, along with Dassault Systèmes CEO Pascal Daloz, gave a live demonstration of Solidworks Companion’s capabilities during a public session at 3DExperience World, showing features such as sketching from files, creating previews of fully parametric models, and assisting with simulation analysis.
More than chatbots, Daloz said, AI companions are based on real industrial knowledge, and innovation comes from facing different perspectives, which is why there are three different companions.
“AI is actually for you, not to replace you, but to amplify what you do and make you even more powerful. In my opinion, your knowledge, know-how, judgment, and experience are the most valuable intellectual property (IP) in this new world and generative economy. IP is becoming the new currency,” Daroz said.
