Christmas Spaghetti

While the world changes continuously, it remains notoriously constant across different eras and perspectives. Everything appears magically interconnected, yet navigating such pervasive complexity can be overwhelming. This is likely because we remain bound by the physical, intellectual, and temporal limits of human nature, operating within the inescapable constraints of our beloved Matrix.

For the last several years, we have been navigating simultaneous waves of innovation and political disruption: the proliferation of artificial intelligence, the rise of unmanned warfare, and the splintering of the world into semi-isolated supply chain and information management enclaves. One need only consider the Western rare earth debacle, the American shipbuilding predicament, and mounting European sovereignty concerns to see the strain. Curiously enough, the “ancien régime” software world is also on the verge of implosion, as the open-source free-riding model may be coming to a screeching halt. There is a clear need for a new wave of adaptation for enterprises across the board, especially those dealing with engineering and manufacturing. This naturally brings us to the subject of the “digital thread” and the increasingly acrimonious debate surrounding it.

Why do so many companies fail to implement the digital thread, choosing instead to shuttle data between disconnected silos? Why are many of those organizations still mired in “Excel Hell”? Why, despite the magnificent and coherent visions of leading vendors, is no one amused by the news of yet another failed PLM project? We can continue talking about the chronic lack of board attention toward PLM initiatives and the general educational disconnect between engineering, IT, and the C-suite. We can venture once again into a conversation about how platforms from those same major vendors occasionally resemble expensive traps with antiquated user experiences.

In almost Freudian terms, every movie I watched in 2025 somehow reminded me of the different artifacts of our professional domain, be it the 1972 classic “The Godfather,” the 1987 “Spaceballs,” the more recent “Zombieland” franchise, or the freshly released “A House of Dynamite.”

The advent of AI will hardly dismantle established, fully digital-thread-oriented vendors; they possess vast amounts of data to train their systems – a critical competitive advantage. Yet smaller vendors benefit enormously from AI too, as they now have nearly unlimited, on-demand expertise at their disposal to supplement and enhance their own unique niche philosophies. Hence, it is no surprise that companies like Colab Software, Leo.AI, and Jiga have all recently received significant funding. I am also quite optimistic about OpenBOM – a system that reliably connects such niche solutions without being overly arrogant.

Our own niche focus lies in building a framework to re-establish the digital thread across PDF-based technical documentation, connecting engineering to manufacturing and beyond. This was virtually impossible prior to the advent of generative visual AI. While we began building our AI-based, human-validated tool for aerospace and defense, we are currently seeing excellent feedback from oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, and even academia. Our architectural insistence on isolated LLMs helps significantly when engaging with companies wary of trusting their precious data to the “friendly” cloud overlords.

Despite the enormous challenges facing Western engineering and manufacturing today, these are the most exciting times to design and build products, with powerful tools available at our fingertips. Ultimately, it is a matter of sound decision-making – something for which we humans are still useful in our beloved Matrix.

Buyer beware, yet buyer rejoice. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!