Industrial Copilot alternative
Why an independent alternative
Free model choice
- Bring your own LLM
- 20+ providers
- No vendor lock-in
Local & private
- Ollama & co.
- Offline-capable
- Data stays local
More than chat
- Openness & code-gen
- Unit tests & CI/CD
- Git & Forge
Code-first
- SCL editor
- Inline completion
- With confirmation
From Basic
- From the Basic plan
- Plans in CHF
- Cancel monthly
Independent
- Official Openness API
- Vendor-independent
- V15-V21
Siemens Industrial Copilot vs. AnyAutomation Studio
AnyAutomation Studio is a full replacement for Siemens Industrial Copilot: the AI assistance you expect for TIA Portal, and considerably more. You bring your own LLM (Claude, GPT, Gemini or a local model) and use AI tightly tied to Openness code generation, unit tests and Git, without being bound to one vendor or cloud. How Studio, Copilot and the other tools line up across the field is in the comparison of AI tools for PLC programming.
What Studio does more
Industrial Copilot is tied to Siemens' own cloud and a fixed model. AnyAutomation Studio is an independent engineering IDE with advantages a vendor-bound copilot can't offer: free model choice (multi-provider) instead of a single model, fully local inference for confidentiality instead of forced cloud, and AI in a code-first workflow rather than chat alone: generate, refactor and verify immediately.
Plus two things Industrial Copilot can't do: an agentic assistant that drives the whole project through the full tool-set (read, generate, export, import and edit blocks, plus EPLAN, live PLC and Forge) and multiple parallel sessions via Best-of-N, so you work on several variants at once and adopt the best.
A tool, not just chat
AI is only one part: the same assistant generates code over Openness, guards it with SCL unit tests and versions it in Git, all in one IDE. That is what makes the switch a full replacement: not another chat next to TIA Portal, but the end-to-end engineering flow.
The comparison in detail
| Criterion | AnyAutomation Studio | Siemens Industrial Copilot | Eigen Engineering Agent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Model choice | Free: Claude, GPT, Gemini, xAI, 20+ cloud providers, local models | Fixed | Fixed |
| Data flow | Local possible (Ollama & co.); cloud only with your own key, never via our server | Siemens/Azure cloud (on-prem variant announced) | Siemens cloud |
| TIA versions | V15-V21 | V19+ | V19-V21 |
| Project context | Yes, project-wide over the Openness API | Yes | Yes |
| Agentic tools | Yes: read, generate, import/export, edit, EPLAN, live PLC, Forge | Chat-oriented | Yes, engineering tasks |
| Parallel sessions | Yes, Best-of-N (2-5 isolated sessions) | No | No |
| SCL unit tests | Yes, against PLCSIM Advanced and real S7 PLCs | No | No |
| Git & CI/CD | Yes, integrated Git client and pipeline hook-up | No | No |
| Inline completion in the editor | Yes, ghost text with a selectable coder model | No | No |
| MCP | Yes, MCP client for custom tools | No | No |
| Pricing model | Public: Basic CHF 10, Pro CHF 30, Pro+ CHF 50 per month (cheaper yearly) | Subscription via Siemens Xcelerator Marketplace | Subscription via Siemens DEX |
| Trial | 30 days free, no credit card | Per vendor terms | 1 month |
Industrial Copilot and the Eigen Engineering Agent are two generations of the same Siemens AI line, not competing products: the Copilot is the first-generation chat assistant, Eigen its agentic successor. Both appear separately in the table because version coverage and distribution differ. As of August 2026. Statements about the Siemens products come from public product pages; Siemens' own information is authoritative.
Alternative to the Eigen Engineering Agent
With the Eigen Engineering Agent, Siemens presented the successor to its Industrial Copilot for TIA engineering at Hannover Messe 2026: instead of a chat copilot, an autonomous agent that connects directly to the project and delivers PLC code, HMI scripts and drive configurations, for TIA Portal V19 through V21, as a subscription on the Siemens DEX marketplace, cloud-based. Anyone looking for an Eigen Engineering Agent alternative is usually after one of three things: support for older TIA versions (Studio covers V15 through V21), local inference instead of the cloud (Studio runs models entirely on your own hardware via Ollama & co.), or free model choice instead of a fixed model. On top of that, Studio brings the toolbox around the AI: unit tests, Git, EPLAN context and Forge, which a pure AI agent does not include.
Transparent pricing
The Studio plans are public and in CHF: Basic CHF 10/month (CHF 110/year) with the AI chat included, Pro CHF 30/month (CHF 330/year), Pro+ CHF 50/month (CHF 550/year), Enterprise on request. You add your own API key with the model provider, or run locally with no key, so you pay the model vendor directly and see your consumption. All details on the Studio page. Try it free for 30 days, no credit card, nothing to cancel.
Frequently asked questions
What is an alternative to Siemens Industrial Copilot?
An alternative offers AI assistance for TIA Portal without being tied to a single vendor. AnyAutomation Studio is multi-provider, can run locally and connects AI with Openness, unit tests and Git.
What sets AnyAutomation Studio apart from Industrial Copilot?
Industrial Copilot is Siemens' official, deeply integrated assistant. AnyAutomation Studio is independent, multi-provider, code-first and offers a local option: AI is part of a broader engineering workflow.
Can I use my own LLM?
Yes. You bring your own API key or login (Claude, GPT, Gemini, xAI, 20+ cloud providers), or run local models with no key at all.
Does the AI run locally?
Yes. Via Ollama, LM Studio, vLLM or SGLang, inference runs entirely on your own hardware, without the cloud: your projects stay local.
Does it fully replace Industrial Copilot?
Yes. AnyAutomation Studio provides the AI assistance you expect from Industrial Copilot and goes beyond it: free model choice, local inference, code-first code generation and the tie-in with unit tests, Openness and Git, in an engineering IDE rather than as an extra chat.
Is there an alternative to the Eigen Engineering Agent?
Yes. Like the Eigen Engineering Agent, AnyAutomation Studio offers an agentic AI assistant with project context, but adds free model choice, a local option and support for TIA Portal V15 through V21 instead of only V19 through V21. Pricing is public, from CHF 10 per month.
What does the alternative cost?
Basic CHF 10/month (AI chat included), Pro CHF 30/month, Pro+ CHF 50/month, each cheaper on the yearly plan. Your own API key with the model provider comes on top, or you run local models with no key. Try free for 30 days.