HOUSTON (Feb 4): The world has yet to encounter revolutionary applications of artificial intelligence (AI), but engineering will be the main driving force behind AI innovation, according to the views of Dassault Systèmes Solidworks chief executive officer and research and development vice-president Manish Kumar.

To provide engineers and creators with the proper AI tools, Solidworks unveiled three new AI companions on the Solidworks platform, a computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided engineering (CAE) software.

“To the creators in this room, your judgement, your craft and your ability to build the physical world have never been more important. A brain needs a body. Similarly, AI relies on the physical world, which makes engineering the industrial backbone of AI,” said Manish at 3DExperience World 2026 day one general session, held in the George R Brown Convention Centre in Houston, Texas.

The three AI companions — Aura, Leo and Marie — were developed with decades of expertise from associates to be combined with the knowledge of the user to create more innovative outcomes. 

Aura will function similarly to a product manager to orchestrate knowledge and contexts from project requirements; Leo focuses more on engineering reasonings, mechanics, structure, motions, simulations and manufacturing; and Marie offers expertise on scientific information such as chemistry, formulations and regulations. 

Manish, alongside Dassault Systèmes CEO Pascal Daloz, demonstrated the capabilities of Solidworks’ companions live during the general session of 3DExperience World and showed functions such as sketches out of files, creating a preview of a fully parametric model and helping with simulation analyses. 

More than chatbots, Daloz said that the AI companions are based on real industrial knowledge, and that innovation stems from confronting different points of view, hence the three different companions. 

“AI is really for you, not to replace you, but to amplify what you do, to make you even more powerful. Your knowledge, your know-how, your judgement, your experience, in my view, are the most valuable intellectual property (IP) in this new world and in the generative economy. IP is becoming the new currency,” said Daloz.