In Stay Sharp Episode 132, Event Wrap Up—CIMdata Market and Industry Conference 2026, Jonathan Scott takes over as host, facilitating a discussion with co-host Juliann Grant and another Razorleaf colleague, Ashish Kulkarni, Senior PLM Leader at Razorleaf International in the Netherlands. On the same day in two different countries, Juliann and Ashish both attended CIMdata’s Annual Market and Industry Conference to preview CIMdata’s market analysis. With Jonathan’s prompting, they cover the highlights, new developments, and surprises from the event whose theme centered on AI and PLM extending capabilities across the product lifecycle.
The State of PLM
CIMdata leaders began the conference by discussing the state of PLM, as well as an overview of the market analysis results that will be formally released in May 2026.
Ashish Kulkarni, Senior PLM Leader, Razorleaf International
Juliann Grant, Vice President, Global Marketing, Razorleaf
Ashish particularly appreciated the results that gave insight into why customers are choosing PLM, how they’re choosing it, and what kind of key parameters they’re focused on. He says, “All the statistics that they present really give you an idea about what’s happening in the PLM market, who is dominating, what they’re doing. I think that’s the most interesting part, to really learn how PLM is evolving nowadays in the market.”
According to the survey results, PLM grew 8.7% in the last year, which was significant, though less than CIMdata had forecast. In the past, the primary reasons why manufacturers moved to PLM were BOM or part management. In this year’s data, the top reasons are knowledge management, global programs and collaboration, and configurability. Juliann speculates that the knowledge management factor might have a lot to do with AI, as well as “what’s happening with the aging workforce and what people are trying to do with information and knowledge to try to keep it all documented.”
One of CIMdata’s most surprising survey results, Juliann mentions, is that more than 50% of survey respondents indicated believing that PLM might have run its course. She suggests some of the reasons have to do with manufacturers having a difficult time determining the value of PLM to the business, while they’re simultaneously being challenged with maintaining momentum in implementations, as well as juggling priority conflicts with other strategic projects. Ashish says part of why customers might be questioning the value of PLM now may relate to AI, asking, “With the AI, can we reduce the ROI for the PLM?” But CIMdata doesn’t see AI taking over everything in PLM. They predict it’ll be applied mostly around repeatable processes, and believe agentic AI isn’t going to be able to take over the deep-domain expertise that’s in human hands—at least not in the near future.
Notable Surprises
Another unexpected result in CIMdata’s preliminary analysis was market growth by industry. Architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) had the most growth at 14% with electronic design automation (EDA) at 9.4%, and simulation and analysis at 8.5%. Juliann and Ashish confirm that EDA was a hot topic in both Europe and the U.S., likely because it connects to the AI theme. Juliann notes, “I think that it’s something we have to keep an eye on, especially with the model-based systems engineering and what’s happening with electronics, things like that software.”
All of the discussion at the dual events emphasized that AI is still the big topic in the industry. But what Juliann and Ashish found interesting was the contrast between vendors and manufacturing organizations. On one hand, vendors are full steam ahead with integrating AI. On the other, manufacturers are moving more deliberately and slowly, because they realize they have to consider data cleanliness and data readiness. Ashish notes that customers are still wary of AI, though CIMdata’s Diego Tamburini did his best to address how that might evolve (see Stay Sharp Episode 125 and Episode 131 for more). “I think this is the area where everybody, even we as a service provider, needs to evolve in terms of these kinds of fear factors from the customer,” Ashish says. “Because that is something key, where if we go in the methodical manner in terms of understanding what we mean by using the AI, what can be automated, what can be improved, I think that is where the key lies in adopting this new technology.”
Learn More About CIMdata’s Market Analysis
The full podcast contains more discussion and details on a variety of topics, including CIMdata’s forecast for industry growth in the coming year, what the experts think about whether AI can or will replace PLM, what Juliann sees as the biggest learning curve for the next 12 months, and more.
Be sure to check out Stay Sharp Episode 132: Event Wrap Up—CIMdata Market and Industry Conference 2026 and join us each week for a new podcast.
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