A call for 'radical collaboration' to fully realise the promise of artificial intelligence (AI) went out from AVEVA World, the flagship event of AVEVA held in San Francisco.

In his keynote address at the event, AVEVA CEO Caspar Herzberg urged companies, governments, and technology partners to move beyond traditional silos and embrace open ecosystems.

Hosted from April 8 to 10 at the Moscone West Convention Centre in San Francisco, experts at the event discussed how industrial intelligence is enabling companies to analyse, visualise, and contextualise their data to improve decision-making, build resilience, and enhance sustainability across the enterprise.

'Radical collaboration means transcending business-as-usual to connect information and insights in new ways – working across silos, across organisations, across value chains. It’s about sharing across domains, bringing a multidisciplinary approach to problems, and tapping into systems thinking. It’s about finding the signal in the noise and seeing with fresh eyes,' said Herzberg.

'I call it ‘radical’ because it represents a departure – it’s not how we did things before. It means recognising that sharing information doesn’t diminish its value. On the contrary, sharing enhances it. And it’s ‘collaborative’ because it involves finding synergies throughout the operational lifecycle and with other groups – even with rivals.'

Herzberg said the 21st century has been defined by accelerating connectivity – across information, supply chains, economies, and people – but warned that these advances are increasingly challenged by global fragmentation.

'We’re living in an era where connection and division are happening at the same time,' he said. 'Financial markets, information systems, companies – we’re all more interdependent than ever before. And yet, we also see de-globalisation, polarisation, and increasing isolation. These twin forces are creating a new kind of complexity.'

In this climate of paradox, Herzberg said industry must evolve – not by clinging to outdated models, but by embracing new ways of thinking, powered by intelligent systems and deep collaboration.

Contrary to the common mantra that industry must 'do more with less,' Herzberg argued that today’s environment actually offers abundance: data, ideas, innovation, and a collective desire for progress.

'This isn’t the era of doing more with less – we can do more with more,' he said. 'We are living in a period of explosive innovation, driven by technology. Amid these advancements, there’s a wealth of opportunity to make common cause – to do things together that we couldn’t achieve on our own, to scale rapidly, to do more.'