Emerson’s NI Days India 2025 Showcases Future-Ready Test and Measurement Tools

Austin, Texas-headquartered National Instruments, which is now part of Emerson’s Test and Measurement business, hosted the 2025 edition of its annual conference - NI Days - in Bengaluru on July 7. The technology event showcased the company’s latest range of hardware and software tools for the transportation, semiconductor, aerospace, and manufacturing industries, among others. 

The event focused on exhibiting NI’s competence in test and measurement equipment that aid faster time to market by enabling virtual testing for emerging technologies, such as ADAS, connectivity, and software-defined vehicle aspects particularly for the automotive industry. The company showcased the modernisation of its hardware platforms, such as CompactRIO and C Series I/O systems product lines, by incorporating unique ASICS for high-speed control capabilities. 

NI’s ubiquitous LabVIEW software, which sees wide adoption within the automotive segment, also saw advancements in terms of a more flexible editor, simplified code comparison, and early access to generative AI capabilities. The company said it will continue to enhance collaborative workflows and integrate AI to automate tasks and provide faster and more perceptive data analysis. 

Nigel AI Platform

NI also showcased its AI advisor - Nigel - which will be integrated with the LabVIEW and TestStand versions later this month, at no additional cost to customers. The company says these generative AI tools are aimed at reinforcing the engineers’ activities of decision making while testing, and developing new products. 

The foray of artificial intelligence in its acclaimed tools are set to redefine the pace with which users make progress in the testing and validation by getting nuanced references based on historic data within the framework of the module. The company says the integration will help teams solve complex test challenges in domains such as EVs, wireless, and semiconductor.

Emerson’s president for Test and Measurement Business Group, Ritu Favre, emphasised that the transition to intelligent test systems that combine modular hardware, advanced software, and data analytics, aid reducing time-to-market and improving test coverage. 

Serving Multiple Stakeholders

National Instruments serves both automotive OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers in areas such as electrification, ADAS, infotainment, and SDVs. With the accelerating shift in the mobility ecosystem towards more sustainable and connected solutions, software-defined vehicles or SDV is another area where the company is actively working on through its partner ecosystem.

“Our partner ecosystem is the biggest differentiator and we are trying to align with all the megatrends in the industry. Our partners bring the necessary domain expertise, which gets complemented by the tools and platforms to test them,” said Shitendra Bhattacharya - Country Head - India, Emerson T&M.

Emerson also announced a strategic partnership with Tata Technologies to develop validation frameworks for automotive, aerospace, and commercial vehicle manufacturers the world over. According to Bhattacharya, “Tata Technologies is a system integrator which will use our technology along with other tools, and aim to solve problem statements defined by OEMs. Companies tend to go to engineering service providers when they lack a certain competency or when they intend to go to market faster by virtue of outsourcing design, prototyping, validation, and manufacturing activities to engineering service providers.”

He further added that several OEMs are beginning to develop their own capabilities to become self-reliant in the areas of electrification, safety, and software engineering. “Therefore, with so many new players coming in, our strategy was to partner with an engineering services company to ensure that we are able to serve the market much faster. One wouldn’t want testing to become a limitation in going to market faster, and that is where we think through all the possible scenarios that could come up in the real-world for quicker validation,” he explained. 

The company is witnessing tremendous growth in software development in India, and envisions further growth in the defense and aerospace segments, with the automotive sector also poised to register breakthrough innovations when it comes to the electrification, safety, and connectivity domains. While National Instruments imports its test and measurement hardware from Malaysia and Hungary, its India R&D centre - the second-largest outside Texas and located in Bengaluru - is involved in the development of the company’s software products, including LabVIEW, and TestStand, among others. 

“Our India R&D arm is very software-focused, and we want to ensure that NI’s core software products are built out of India,” Bhattacharya signed off on an optimistic note.