AI is driving the fourth industrial revolution — and Philly companies are helping lead the way

AI is no longer a buzzword — it’s one of the technologies powering a new industrial revolution, experts agreed at a recent conference in Philadelphia.

Industry 4.0, the sweeping digitization of how goods are designed, used and maintained, is being driven by new technology, changes in workforce demographics, reindustrialization, regulation enforcement and a push towards sustainability, said Nick Lopez, principal at Deloitte, said at Phorum 2025.  

From life sciences to advanced manufacturing, emerging technologies are reshaping entire industries, panelists said at the event last week.

“AI, [Internet of Things], 3D geospatial data, the list goes on and these technologies are accelerating very quickly,” Lopez said. “There’s huge potential to improve efficiency and productivity across industries, which will have a positive impact on all of our lives.”  

More than just efficiency, Industry 4.0 is about reimagining what’s possible when technology augments human expertise, whether that’s catching errors before they happen, building smarter cities or accelerating life-saving medical breakthroughs

This fourth wave of industrial progress builds on previous revolutions — mechanization, electrification and computerization — by adding a new digital layer. AI now joins forces with technologies like the Internet of Things and digital twins, virtual models of real-world systems that can be used to simulate and improve operations in real time.

More AI pharma coming soon

Right now, AI is good at generating content and analyzing data, but a “neuroscience approach” to AI is what’s coming, said Denise Holt, cofounder of the SpatialWeb Foundation.

“AI that can actually mimic biological intelligence and model predictions for the future,” she said. “To be able to have an understanding of the world and operate with knowledge of a digital representation of visible things.”

One version of this is active inference AI, which takes in sensory data, collects feedback and updates its understanding of its surroundings, she said. Another example is spatial web protocol, which would be a digital representation of physical things. 

Similar work is happening in the life sciences industry with knowledge graphs, which collect information about what happens in manufacturing and can then be used to make predictions. While pharma companies face tight regulations, momentum is building, said Vishal Prasad, CTO at GSK.

“People are adopting it,” he said. “With an LLM engine and basically a knowledge graph behind it that is really allowing them to make very good decisions in a very short period of time with very little effort.”

AI infrastructure analysis to plan construction

Companies are investing in tools that don’t just process data, but adapt and learn from it.

Philadelphia-based companies are among those pushing the frontier.

Patrick Cozzi, chief platform officer at Bentley Systems and founder of Cesium, described how Cesium worked with Epic Games to create 3D tiles for real-time digital modeling. The tech started in gaming, but now powers everything from urban planning to national defense.

Cozzi explained how drones, GPS sensors and dash cams are being deployed to detect infrastructure issues like broken towers and cracked roadways. 

AI is even helping plan developments more intelligently — estimating parking needs, for instance, before a single shovel hits dirt.

The next hurdle: data security 

Still, security and data ownership are looming concerns for developers, especially in regulated industries like healthcare. 

“The protocol of the spatial web, it has security baked in,” Holt said. “Whereas right now, we’re trying to use all these emerging technologies in the most unsecured environment, the World Wide Web.”

In this context, the security permissions would have set expirations, she added. 

Plus, there is so much data out there and so much more data that will be coming in, companies have to think about how they’re keeping up with it and its security, Lopez said. 

“We’re seeing more of this in terms of being able to analyze what’s on your servers, what’s in your cloud, understanding what’s important,” Lopez said. “Where it needs to be stored, in terms of security policies.