Collaborative value and co-creation models THEME 4 Evolutions of themes Accelerate shared value creation by enabling customers to co- design, co-simulate and co- develop solutions with OEMs. Time to market Co-creation cycle timeDigital co-design tools — Customers configure products, simulate performance and provide early design input using interactive 3D or AR tools. — Early iterations cut engineering rework and shorten time- to-spec. — Tighter feedback loops improve accuracy and design confidence.Industrial metaverse collaboration — OEMs and customers jointly simulate design, performance and carbon lifecycle impacts; and conduct virtual pre- dispatch inspections in immersive metaverse environments. — Complex engineering concepts are validated collaboratively in digital testbeds. — Immersive collaboration accelerates development cycles and commercialization.Federated co-creation ecosystems — OEMs, partners and customers co-innovate in secure shared spaces with controlled data and IP sharing. — Autonomous design agents explore multiple solution paths and recommend optimal concepts. — Federated ecosystems enable real-time monetization of new products and services, unlocking growth.NOW (0-2 years) NEAR (3-5 years) NEXT (5+ years) Objectives Closing the loop: turning customer feedback into autonomous quality improvementCUSTOMER INTEGRATION | CASE STUDY Midea Challenge Solution Impact Midea’s Si Racha plant struggled to manage over 1,000 annual complaints from 80 service centres across 40 countries. Manual processes caused delays of up to 30 days and heavy reliance on judgement, limiting consistent and timely resolution and highlighting the need for faster, data-driven quality response.As highlighted in the World Economic Forum’s Global Lighthouse Network 2026 report, to address these issues, Midea deployed an AI-driven system that automated the end- to-end process linking voice-of- customer (customer feedback) to voice-of-process (production quality improvements). Customer feedback was centralized and integrated with QMS to create a closed data loop, while advanced graph-matching linked complaints to responsible units and LLMs generated root causes and corrective actions validated by engineer chatbots. This enabled proactive quality control with faster, more accurate responses and less manual effort.The transformation delivered measurable impact by connecting customer signals directly to production, reducing manual checks and elevating global quality standards while turning feedback into foresight, resulting in: –Quality issue-to-action plan lead time cut to 1 day. –32% reduction in customer complaints. –43% lower defect rates.CUSTOMER INTEGRATION Intelligent Industrial Operations Outlook 2026 46