"We're interested in partners of all shapes and sizes": NI's Luke Schreier on future AI partner opportunities

Emerson expands NI Nigel AI capabilities and signals openness to new partner engagement models as engineering AI adoption evolves.

Emerson says it remains open to working with partners across multiple engagement models as engineering AI adoption evolves, while expanding AI capabilities across its NI software portfolio and strengthening its channel ecosystem in India.

Speaking to CRN India during NI Days India 2026 in Bengaluru, Luke Schreier, vice president of global sales, marketing and services for Emerson's test and measurement business, said the company remains open to working with partners across different engagement models as AI adoption in engineering continues to evolve.

The comments come as Emerson introduced the next phase of NI Nigel AI, extending the platform from an AI assistant to an AI author capable of generating engineering code and test sequences directly inside NI software.

Asked whether Emerson sees opportunities for Indian partners to help develop future agentic AI capabilities around Nigel AI, Schreier said the company has not yet defined a specific model but is open to discussions.

"I think we're probably a little early to definitively answer that question," Schreier told CRN India.

"We're interested in partners of all shapes and sizes to meet customer challenges. Sometimes that's as a value-added reseller of our products, as a channel for our products, or as an IP partner. We are open to the conversation on all these fronts."

He said the rapid pace of AI development makes collaboration important.

"The industry is moving so fast. We want to approach that with as much engineering horsepower as we can bring together. I wouldn't by any means close down that opportunity," Schreier said.

The announcement coincides with Emerson's latest update to NI Nigel AI, which now brings prompt-based code generation to NI LabVIEW and automated test sequence creation to NI TestStand. The company said internal benchmarking across representative engineering workflows showed these capabilities can reduce test development time and effort by up to 50 percent.

Nigel AI has also been expanded across the broader NI LabVIEW+ Suite, including InstrumentStudio, FlexLogger and VeriStand, allowing engineers to use AI-assisted workflows across design, measurement, validation and deployment.

Expand India partner ecosystem

At NI Days India, Emerson positioned the technology as part of a broader effort to help engineering organisations manage software-defined products and growing system complexity.

The company also used the event to expand its India partner ecosystem by appointing Aimil Ltd. as an authorised distribution partner for North and East India.

The appointment adds another regional distribution partner for NI's test, measurement and data acquisition portfolio alongside existing distributors and is intended to improve customer reach, technical support and market coverage.

Priyachandar Paramasivam, country head and director for Emerson's test and measurement business in India, said the company continues to build its partner ecosystem based on customer requirements rather than predefined partner categories.

"We look at partnership from the customer lens. What do our customers want, and who can bring that skill set?" Paramasivam told CRN India.

"We are very open to welcoming new partners."

He said Emerson works with a mix of distributors, alliance partners, value-added resellers and system integrators depending on the expertise required across industries such as aerospace and defence, transportation and semiconductors.

"As India is investing across many industries, we are actively looking for different kinds of partners too," he said.

"We may not be there at every customer door, but partners being present across different cities is definitely a huge benefit for us."

Paramasivam said Emerson currently works with three distributors including VVDN Technologies, Aimil Ltd. and element14, while also collaborating with over 20 system integrators that build industry-specific solutions on top of NI technologies.

Beyond the product announcements, NI Days India brought together customers, partners and engineering leaders to discuss how AI is changing engineering workflows across industries including semiconductors, automotive, aerospace and defence, industrial automation, life sciences and energy.

Co-hosted with L&T Technology Services (LTTS), the event focused on how organisations can move beyond AI experimentation by combining engineering expertise with AI to improve productivity, manage growing engineering complexity and build connected engineering workflows.

The combination of expanded AI capabilities and a growing partner ecosystem comes as Emerson looks to help engineering organisations improve productivity, manage increasing system complexity and accelerate adoption of AI-driven engineering workflows.