Representative End User Clients
Representative Automation Clients
Representative Software Clients
On 4 September, Emerson hosted its Boundless Automation Summit in Singapore, bringing together industry leaders, customers, and experts to showcase the company’s latest innovations and vision for the future of industrial automation.
The summit opened with Susan Hughes, President, Asia-Pacific, and William Tan, Vice President & General Manager, Singapore, who outlined the challenges industrial organizations face today. These include digital transformation initiatives that don’t always deliver, navigating autonomous operations, balancing sustainability goals with productivity, and managing projects that often exceed time and budget expectations.
Hughes described how Emerson works with customers to tackle these challenges:
“That is what, at Emerson, we pride ourselves on—solving the unsolvable. Over our 135-year history, we have put our customers first, focusing on innovation, partnership, and execution.”
She also highlighted the company’s regional strategy:
“Customer focus is our priority. We’ve built manufacturing, supply chain, and engineering capabilities in-region, for the region, to remain relevant and close to our customers.”
Overview of Emerson’s global footprint and achievements, presented by Hughes.
Singapore, Emerson’s Asia Pacific headquarters, has been a base for the company since 1965. Leveraging its regional footprint across manufacturing, project execution, and engineering, Emerson supports industries from life sciences and power generation to refineries and petrochemical plants. Its recently upgraded Solutions Center, equipped with cutting-edge technologies, aims to support customers in the region by providing the tools and expertise needed for timely, relevant solutions.
Future of Automation—“Boundless”
Following the opening address, Chowyang Neo, Senior Director of Marketing & Planning, elaborated on Emerson’s vision for the future of automation—Boundless Automation—designed to remove traditional boundaries between systems, data sources, and hardware, enabling organizations to more fully leverage AI and software. Neo highlighted the architecture:
“You have got cloud, edge, intelligent field, all unified by a data fabric. We call it boundless because we believe there shouldn’t be so many boundaries that we have today.”
Boundless Automation—a next-generation automation architecture that aims to break the data silo barriers, liberate data and unleash the power of software and AI
This unified approach allows AI and software to be applied more effectively across operations, from predictive maintenance and operational optimization to broader data-driven decision-making. Virtual AI agents, such as the Guardian Virtual Advisor and AspenTech Virtual Advisor, demonstrate how AI solutions can add value to operational needs. Central to this is a data fabric, such as AspenTech Inmation, which enables structured and unstructured data to flow seamlessly across systems, be shared, and integrated. Together with cloud, edge, and next-generation intelligent field devices, this foundation allows AI and advanced analytics to generate more comprehensive, actionable insights. The result is an architecture that helps organizations become more adaptable and future-ready in the rapidly evolving Industrial AI era.
Project Beyond—Emerson’s Initiative for Software-Defined Operations
Neo also explained Project Beyond, Emerson’s next-generation initiative building on the company’s history in process control. Evolving from the DeltaV™ distributed control system, Emerson introduced CHARMs within its electronic marshalling architecture, modularizing automation functions and enabling software-defined automation by decoupling control logic from hardware. Project Beyond delivers the Enterprise Operations Platform, a software-defined layer that unifies operations across cloud, edge, and field environments. Using distributed CHARMs and a software-defined infrastructure, it is designed to simplify the integration of diverse OT systems and support scaling, updating, and optimization of operations—part of Emerson’s broader Boundless Automation architecture.
The evolution of DCS to software-defined—From the Emerson’s perspective
CXO Panel Discussion—The Future of Automation: Shaping the Next Era of Industrial Excellence
The CXO panel, moderated by William Tan, explored how automation is evolving across industries and how AI is reshaping operational practices. Automation end user panelists representing different industries highlighted automation as essential for efficiency, safety, and sustainability, emphasizing that digital tools empower employees rather than replace them. Discussions revolved around drivers for automation adoption, the impact of predictive analytics, digital twins, and connected systems, and the challenges of balancing innovation with cybersecurity, reliability, and workforce readiness. Sustainability and energy efficiency were also recurring themes, with leaders sharing strategies to integrate automation while maintaining a human-centric approach.
The summit also featured an exhibition and expert presentations showcasing Emerson’s latest and upcoming technologies, from field devices and distributed control systems to AI agents, optimization solutions, and enterprise software. These demonstrations highlighted the synergy between different layers of automation, illustrating how integrated systems, data, and intelligence enable a more connected, adaptable, and AI-ready industrial environment. Together, they offered a glimpse of the Boundless future Emerson envisions—where technology integration supports operational insight, efficiency, and resilience across industries.