Across industries, the pace of technological advancement is rewriting expectations. Artificial intelligence is advancing nearly three times faster than Moore’s Law, and hyperscalers are investing more than $60 billion every quarter to fuel this growth. Engineers now face increasing pressure to bring clarity to complexity, to validate expanding design spaces, and to deliver higher performance under tighter time constraints than ever before.

These conditions aren’t temporary, and they represent a fundamental shift in how innovation happens. However, while the pace has changed, the underlying challenge has not: engineers must find new ways to build confidence in the systems that will power the next decade.

NI teams have always thrived in this environment. Our identity has never been tied to a single product or technology. Instead, it’s built on a consistent ability to anticipate change, embrace disruptive moments, and translate emerging technologies into meaningful engineering capabilities. AI is no exception. It is simply the next transformative wave in a story we’ve been shaping for 50 years.

Our leadership in test and measurement has always come from meeting each major technological shift with bold new thinking. When the industry moved from manual instruments to computer-based systems, we led the IEEE 488 (GPIB) bus interface and introduced graphical programming which fundamentally changed how engineers approached measurement and automation. It started with an idea as bold as it was simple: connect a test instrument to a computer. This idea reshaped the way the world tests and measures technology, setting a new standard that still guides us today. As complexity grew and flexibility became essential, we pioneered NI PXI and modular instrumentation, establishing a new standard for high-performance, scalable test architectures. 

With every shift, our focus has remained the same: empower engineers to work smarter, respond to change faster, and move from insight to impact with greater confidence. Our longevity is not the result of merely keeping up with the industry. It comes from helping shape where the industry is going. 

Engineers today are designing the wireless systems, semiconductors, vehicles, and aerospace technologies that will define the 2030s and beyond. Their needs are evolving rapidly, and they expect their test strategies to evolve with them. The speed of AI innovation only amplifies these expectations. 

AI is different from the technology waves that came before it. It both enhances engineer's expertise and productivity and unlocks new insights into their products' performance. For the first time, computational tools are capable of creating other tools, generating code, identifying patterns across massive data sets, and accelerating tasks that once consumed hours, days, or weeks of engineering effort.

In test and measurement, this evolution has profound implications. As algorithms grow more sophisticated and designs iterate faster, the value of a test system lies increasingly in its ability to adapt, learn, and provide meaningful insight in real time. Engineers need more than faster instruments and more data. They need frameworks that support adaptive workflows.

The NI innovation mindset will once again prove to be critical in shaping and reshaping adaptive AI workflows. We view AI not as a disruptive threat, but as a natural extension of our mission to simplify complexity and enable deeper understanding by reimagining engineering productivity. Just as we embraced the PC revolution, modular architectures, and real-time systems, we are embracing AI as the next chapter in our legacy.

A company’s ability to innovate in a rapidly changing environment is determined less by its technologies and more by its culture. Our culture has always been rooted in curiosity, engineering rigor, and a willingness to rethink what’s possible. These values are especially important now.

For us, innovation has never been tied to a single breakthrough or product release. It comes from a disciplined practice of asking better questions: What new demands will engineers face? How will design cycles shift? How do emerging architectures change what is possible in test? And most importantly, how can we help engineers stay ahead of these changes?

This mindset is why we are prepared for the AI era. We understand the importance of accuracy, determinism, and confidence in test; qualities that will only grow in importance as AI-enabled systems become more widespread. And we recognize that the future of engineering will depend on the interplay between human expertise and intelligent tools. Simply put, the role of the engineer will have to evolve.

When we talk about AI, we are not just referring to the incorporation of new models or algorithms. We are focused on how AI can fundamentally elevate the engineering experience. NI Nigel AI, the industry’s first test-optimized AI, is our first expression of that vision.

Nigel does not replace engineers. It empowers them. It brings together decades of measurement knowledge, software patterns, and testing best practices, and makes that expertise accessible at the moment it’s needed. Its ability to explain code, troubleshoot concepts, and connect engineers to the right context reflects the deep test and measurement intelligence that general-purpose AI simply cannot replicate.

Nigel as an advisor is only the beginning. As models continue to evolve, we envision a future where AI will take on more complex tasks. Nigel will be able to generate test sequences, analyze patterns across product lifecycles, correlate measurement trends, and enable workflows that aren’t feasible today. The goal is not automation for its own sake. It is to elevate the engineer’s role, allowing them to focus on design decisions, system understanding, and innovation rather than manual, repetitive tasks.

This is the same motivation that drove our earliest breakthroughs. AI simply expands the horizon.

The test and measurement landscape will continue to change rapidly. Devices are becoming more complex. Data volumes are growing. Design cycles are compressing. AI is setting new expectations for what engineering tools should deliver.

However, the core of the NI identity remains unchanged. We will continue to anticipate what’s next. We will continue to evolve our platform to unlock the full power of data and Nigel, and we will continue to empower engineers to push the boundaries of what’s possible.

Our leadership in test and measurement has always been rooted in curiosity and in motion; driven by a willingness to lead into the unknown, to experiment, to iterate, and to deliver solutions that move teams from the demands of today to the opportunities of tomorrow.

AI is the newest chapter in our story, but it will not be the last. It’s our culture of innovation that has guided us across every technological frontier and will continue to guide us across the next one.

Explore how the innovation-driven NI culture is shaping the future of test and measurement. Join us at NI Connect 2026.