Circular economy

This article highlights the transition of Catena-X (CX) in North America from pilot initiatives to large-scale adoption within the automotive industry. It positions CX as a decentralized data ecosystem—an “Internet for data”—that addresses critical challenges such as quality management, sustainability compliance, and battery passport reporting. Drawing on insights from the AIAG Catena-X Conference and Supplier Onboarding Day in Detroit, the article emphasizes that digital transformation and AI initiatives are fundamentally data challenges, often hindered by fragmentation across organizations and supply chains. Catena-X provides a practical, business-oriented approach by combining trusted data-sharing infrastructure, ready-to-deploy use cases, and a scalable onboarding model for suppliers. The experiences shared by industry leaders demonstrate how CX accelerates time-to-value, enabling companies to transform fragmented data into interoperable, trusted data flows that underpin generative AI, digital twins, and future digital business models.

Hannover Messe 2026 highlighted the convergence of Physical AI, data ecosystems, and industrial policy. The article shows how dataspace technology enables both global data ecosystems and enterprise dataspaces, forming the foundation for AI-data readiness and the extended enterprise.

Japan has long been a global leader in robotics, combining cultural influence with industrial strength as both a major user and producer of robotic technologies. Building on this foundation, the RoX initiative introduces a new paradigm in robotics by integrating physical AI with secure, interoperable data ecosystems. Presented through webinars with leading Japanese institutions—Kyoto University’s KUPAC and the Robot Revolution & Industrial IoT Initiative (RRI)—RoX highlights how next-generation robotics depends not only on hardware but on access to high-quality operational data governed through trusted dataspaces. By enabling collaboration across organizations while protecting intellectual property, RoX supports modular development, lifecycle integration, and improved industrial performance. Early demonstrations show tangible benefits in efficiency, adaptability, and quality, positioning RoX as a key step toward scalable, AI-driven robotics within global data-sharing ecosystems.