From Legacy to Smart: Retrofitting Existing Machines for AI Without a Full Equipment Upgrade

Most factories—especially SMEs—still rely on legacy machines that were never designed for connectivity, data collection, or AI. Replacing them is costly and often unnecessary. Today’s retrofit solutions make it possible to transform decades-old equipment into intelligent assets capable of supporting predictive maintenance, real-time quality insights, and autonomous optimization.

This session brings together manufacturing leaders, systems integrators, and industrial AI architects who have successfully modernized legacy equipment across diverse production environments. Panelists will share practical methods for creating AI-ready machines without disruptive rebuilds or capital-intensive upgrades.

Key discussion themes include:

• Retrofitting strategies that work: sensors, edge gateways, PLC taps, vibration/thermal monitoring, and vision add-ons

• Selecting the right level of instrumentation: balancing data needs vs. cost, complexity, and time to value

• Integrating legacy OT with modern IT/AI systems: secure data extraction, protocol translation, and contextualization

• Deploying AI models at the edge to handle limited bandwidth, latency-sensitive operations, or air-gapped environments

• Ensuring reliability and safety when augmenting equipment built before Industry 4.0

• Real-world case studies demonstrating fast ROI from older CNCs, injection molding machines, stamping presses, packaging lines, and more

• How to scale retrofits across multiple lines or plants without custom engineering each time

Attendees will gain a blueprint for upgrading their machines into smart, data-rich assets—unlocking predictive insights and productivity improvements at a fraction of the cost of replacement.